


Tony's Bucket List: Unabridged and Extended Edition

by Ficker



Series: TBL [1]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Homestuck, Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Abuse, Abusive Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Alternate Universe - Petstuck (Homestuck), Castration, Comfort, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Depression, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Violence, Dubious Consent, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Extremely Dubious Consent, Eye Trauma, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Karkat Hates Himself, Karkat Swearing, M/M, Non-Human Genitalia, Not between Bro and Dave, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Prostitution, Psychological Trauma, Racism, Rape/Non-con Elements, Reunions, Rewrite, Running Away, Saving the World, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Slavery, Suicidal Thoughts, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Traumatic Brain Injury, Unethical Experimentation, emotional disorders, good things happen too, no actual suicide, unabridged fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:41:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 45,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24019180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ficker/pseuds/Ficker
Summary: **A rewrite of my fic by the same name: But the unabridged and extended edition! Many things have been changed between the fics. **Tony always assumed that he had done everything and everyone worth doing, but he was still empty and alone at the end of the day.Then one day he was asked if he had ever had "done" a troll.This led him down a path filled with shock, anguish, disturbing sights and bitter truths. But it also eventually led him to deep friendships, genuine happiness, a loving family and a self completing feeling of heroism.It also led to him saving generations of trolls who were treated as "pets" or slaves on earth. But that was a side benefit.
Relationships: Eridan Ampora/Other(s), Eridan Ampora/Tony Stark, Grand Highblood/Karkat Vantas, Karkat Vantas/OMC, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Sollux Captor/Karkat Vantas, Tony Stark/Other(s)
Series: TBL [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1732516
Comments: 32
Kudos: 24





	1. Done it with a Troll?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tony's Bucket List.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3180290) by [Ficker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ficker/pseuds/Ficker). 



> Well, I am finally doing it. 
> 
> I am rewriting the chapters. They will be longer, better and have real continuity. 
> 
> The other fic will no longer be updated. The fics will quickly diverge from each other. 
> 
> The old fic is now basically my, rather public, bad outline and a testament to how much I have improved over these five years. 
> 
> The two fics will be **DRASTICALLY** different from each other by the end.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is lonely and depressed and alcohol isn't cutting it. 
> 
> So he throws a party.

**-Enter: Tony Stark: Sunday, 1 pm-**  
  
  
  


It was 1 pm and Anthony Edward “Tony” Stark, son of Howard and Maria Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, Iron Man and CEO of Stark Industries… was depressed. He felt incomplete since Miss Victoria “Pepper” Potts he’d broken up with her… OK, it was mutua… Ok, it wasn’t and she’d broken up with him. He pined for her. The dark haired man just wanted her close, pressed up against his body when they woke up in the morning and he didn’t have that. Tony missed her with every fiber of his being and he was so tired of waking up to the cold half of the bed. 

His “Super Secret Boy-Band” duties had been abnormally hectic and that helped combat the pain in his mind. But there were too many moments that Tony found himself drunk and partnerless on his floor with no company other than Jarvis and his thoughts and… it was all too silent. Tony didn’t like to be alone, it made him feel unsettled and, in an odd way, vulnerable. He NEEDED someone, even if it was just for a night. 

It was the silence that did it in the end and Tony decided to do what he felt he did best, be an attention hogging playboy. He threw a party and invited all the best of the best, or the sexiest of the sexiest. The other Avengers opted not to go. Tony was always a mess at these things and none of them wanted to see it. 

**-Enter: Tony Stark: 11 pm-**

It was 11:00 at night and the penthouse above Stark Industries was filled to breaking. There were businessmen, the odd reporter, rich brats and a throng of beautiful women along with gallons upon gallons of liquor of every type.   
  
Tony danced and drank and spun until he could hardly stay on his feet, moving from one conversation to another, one person to another, looking for one pretty fish to bite. So far… Well, it seemed either his reputation preceded him or the woman's reputation did. Inside, Tony was still in pain, the lights and sounds still leaving him feeling just as empty as before. He drank more, wanting to fill that hole. Putting all his effort into burying his feelings. He looked drunk and frantic to any that knew him well. However, none there did.

Tony took a break from dancing to lean against his wall, a businessman he barely knew of walked over again, some small-time CEO of some small-time company, he was too drunk to think. Tony groaned, but pretended to listen to the man's prattle, humming as the man introduced himself for the fourth time that night… or was it the fifth? He'd lost the count as he really didn’t give a damn. The walls seemed to be tilting. 

“Mister Stark. Hello… a… again. I-I am Thomas Gregg, again, and I run Freddie's Burgers franchise. I am a CEO, much like yourself, and I was wondering if you wanted to get in on a different wonderful business opportunity that I have with my franchise…” Tony rolled his eyes, bored out of his mind as he heard the man speak. Burgers… again with the burgers… Why the hell would the man STILL think Tony would try his hand at fast food? Why did this man KEEP trying? Booze? Was it booze? Tony needed vodka. Vodka was good to wash the acidic taste from his own mouth.  
  
“Uhh… Mister Gregg, was it?” Tony asked, snagging a cup from a passing waitress and starting to drink. Scotch. It’d do. “I think you have me confused with someone who cares about petty little-” Suddenly a third, less boring, voice cut in. 

"I just heard you've never had sex with a troll! Seriously? I thought you were a Master of the sexual arts..." it was the annoying and slightly mocking voice of Matthew J Jameson cut. His blond mug and annoying hipster chic from stepping into the conversation between Tony and the painfully boring and repetitive businessman. 

Tony happily turned away from Thomas Gregg to give the oddly twenty-one year old trust fund baby currently butting in his full attention. He might be too drunk. If he’d been sober he’d have never done it. “Nope. I haven't. I also have never done it with a horse. I'm not big on zoophilia” Tony said, smirking and finishing his drink, before snagging yet another one and walking away from the… He forgot the burger man's name again. Matthew made a face like he didn’t understand the joke for a moment. Tony imagined the boy made that face a lot. Matthew was as stupid as he was hot and blond… He shouldn’t have drank so much. 

“Wait, wait, wait… You’ve never MET a troll before?" The way the younger man latched onto that fact so fast was mildly surprising. He'd never known the boy's father to show even a semblance of intelligence. The senior Jameson was an accountant. Miracles happened it seemed. Well, every dog had its day... Queen Elizabeth I said that Tony remembered. 

Mathew was still talking. "They don’t act like animals dude. More like slightly fucking nuts people” he said, putting an arm on Tony’s shoulder. An arm Tony removed, a healthy glare on his face. He was not big on being touched by others randomly. Unless he touched them first.  
  
A bit hypocritical he knew, but heck. He was Tony freaking Stark. A viable god among men... Thor be damned. “Kindly refrain from getting your grubby hands on my suit.” It almost sounded like someone else was speaking to Tony’s ears as his vision swam.  
  
The younger male rolled his eyes. Those hot eyes. “Hold on. You're missing the point”. The younger male gave it a moment of thought and smiled seeming to come up with an idea. “I know. I’ll make you a bet. I’ll get my troll and bring him back for you. To show you how awesome trolls are." He said. If Tony had been sober he’d have seen the trap. Or even if he wasn’t fucking plastered. As it was, any more booze and he might pass out.  
  
"If you meet him and don't think he's an animal, you gotta buy him and keep him around…” Matthew moved close to Tony again. “Come on. You’ve never lived until you’ve fucked a troll” he said. Tony was oddly intrigued. A crazy person? He’d never much looked into trolls, always just thinking of them as pets in people' clothes. Like monkeys. He didn’t like monkeys. They creeped him out. “Alright, I’ll make that bet” He said, in a rather good mood at the idea of a bet and he might get to fuck the blond if he played his cards right. Did he want to fuck the blond? Oh… right. Waking up alone. “If I am right and it's like a horse or other dumb animal you… come to bed with me…” Tony actually leaned back, forgetting about his earlier protests. “If you are right…” he thought for a moment and smiled slyly. “I’ll buy the troll”. Matthew grinned at that. “I’ll pay the real buying price,” He clarified, before turning away to go and wait. 

Matthew was not the smartest kid, one instance aside, in the word, and Tony was 85% sure he would win the bet. He’d seen the trolls on TV after all. They were idiotic creatures who simply repeated or mocked at best and at worse were on the news for attacking someone. People had died… Then again, dogs killed as well. Tony took a seat and waited. A tiny voice inside Tony’s head told him that he might lose. His math might be off thanks to the rather large amount of liquor in his system. That TVs lied and that those News stories showed something he should realise. It was nagging at him. It was something about the victims of the troll attacks that he’d notice was odd once. “Never mind…” The billionaire muttered aloud before seeing another attractive blond. Potts was still ignoring him, so he might as well use this party for the reason he threw it. 

An hour later Matthew came back with a tall, thin male. It took Tony a full 3 seconds before he saw it was a troll. It was not at all like the hunched, small things seen on the TV. The troll walked straight, shoulders back with this look of sheer confidence and… amusement? It was unexpected. The tiny voice was back. _‘Look at those eyes’_ it said. Tony didn’t see anything odd in them.  
  
“Eridan, this is Mr. Stark, why don’t you show him how much of an animal you are '' Matthew said, his smirk as wide as the cat who’d caught the bird. Eridan kept his own smirk on his face and walked close. There was something predatory about the way the troll moved. His shoulders were so firm. “WWell, Mister Stark… Anywway in particular that I can prove I am not a... Horse wwas it?” He looked at his _Master_ , an eyebrow raised, those eyes… Intelligence? 

“... Is that a lisp?” Tony said after a moment, raping an arm around the troll, ignoring Matthew as he admitted defeat. If he was going to be buying a troll he might as well get to know it first. “Yes. It is...it's not funny either”, Eridan said, crossing his arms but not pulling away, In fact he moved closer and laid his head onto the human's shoulder. The troll was just a little shorter then Tony. “Oh, it's fucking hilarious. Way too fucking funny. So… Tell me, are you as good in bed as Matthew says you are?’ He asked with a smirk, feeling his cock harden inside his pants. He wouldn’t be alone.  
  
“On, better wway better. Mattheww never kneww a good thing wwhen he had it” Eridan said with a laugh, even as he turned his head to look back at the blond. Tony laughed again and raised a finger, turning to Matthew as well. “Send the money request to my office” He didn’t admit defeat outright with his words. There was still that little voice inside Tony's head, it was almost screaming now, but Stark ignored it, a shiver going up his spine. “Let's enjoy the party”, he said, taking another cup from a tray and refusing to let go of the grey skinned male. Vodka, finally! 

The night quickly descended into a night that Tony couldn’t remember even if he’d given it all of his effort.  
  
Patches stuck out to him only.  
  
That cool grey skin under his fingers as sharp teeth smiled wide.  
  
More booze.  
  
Those yellow eyes with those grey irises and black pupils.  
  
The walls seeming to turn on their head as he was pulled to his room by that strong and gentle boy.  
  
Sinking into an organ that he’d never known existed and pulling the skinny form close.  
  
Purple tears in yellow eyes… 

**The next morning 10 am**

Tony Stark found when he awoke that he had a huge headache and the light seemed to be pounding on his head. There was a strangely cool body next to him. Was it the blond…? No… She turned him down. The brunette? No...that was yesterday…Matthew? MATTHEW! Suddenly bright yellow eyes and sharp teeth came to mind, and he shot up, holding his head, before looking next to him, peeking over. Yep. It was gray. He’d bought and fucked a troll. A very talented troll… If memory serves him right. But… Still, an animal. How drunk had he gotten? Yet, he remembered it talking. Then again… trolls were mimics… FUCK. 

“Jarvis, look up Troll care, tips and info… then summarize it and print it out” he said, getting up and putting on his pants. Coffee. Tony needed coffee and to check his video feeds. He could see his clothes all over, along with a tight purple v-neck shirt and tight leather pants, wait, they were pleather. The troll had worn flip-flops with them. Fuck this was odd. Tony usually didn’t mind waking up his bed partners, but this time he needed the other to stay asleep. At least until he knew what to expect. The human practically fled. 

The list was printed out and waiting for him when he got to the kitchen. “OK, here it is…” He scanned it and his brows furrowed. “Wait. What?!”

  * Trolls require a large amount of attention. About the amount a toddler would need.


  * Trolls can overeat and get sick. Watch their diet. 


  * Trolls are the perfect pet as they require almost zero attention and can feed, wash and entertain themselves. 


  * Trolls can be violent. They should be watched around small children and sometimes a shock collar is recommended. Crating is also often used with aggressive trolls. 


  * Trolls should not be confined. This makes them agitated. 


  * Trolls have the intelligence of a 2-4 year old child. 


  * Trolls are not stupid, contrary to popular belief. They can speak, read, write and do most things humans can do. They make great service animals. 



“Jarvis! These facts contradict each other…” Tony said, groaning as his head pounded like a jackhammer inside his skull.  
  
“I apologize Sir. It seems there is not an agreement among those that study trolls. Also, there seems to be a rather large online debate about proper care. I will strive to find the articles with the best evidence”. Tony nodded before starting to make himself some coffee. The other Avengers were all still elsewhere at the moment and Tony had the place, relatively, to himself. "Sir. Your bed partner is currently awake and appears to be crying".  
  
"FUCK!" 


	2. Pepper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony learns just what he's done. 
> 
> He doesn't react well.

Tony hesitated for a moment, unsure of himself. However, after a moment he walked back to the room. _**His** **room**_ that currently housed a troll that was just supposed to be an ignorant animal. But... Animals didn't cry. A part of said that that might not be true and mentioned something about elephants, but Tony ignored it. It was irrelevant. Jarvis would not mistake crying for anything but. He hadn’t programmed an idiot for an AI. However when the genius got to the door of his room he didn't feel so smart. 

The troll was crying, his bare knees brought up to his chest and his head on his knees. The creature's shoulders were shaking and it was making pitiful quiet gasping sounds. It was… no. _He_ was making pitiful gasping sounds. The troll was a he. But, fuck, what was the trolls name again? He’d heard it the night before. Tony stood there for what felt like at least a minute uncomfortably searching. "Hey... Umm. Damn I forgot your name..." Tony muttered, looking away, admitting his failing but that wasn’t why he looked away. He was trying to give the other some privacy as discomfort rose inside the man’s chest.   
  
"Wwhat do you wwant?”. The boy said, his eyes staring over at the floor near Tony’s feet even though his voice was cold and distant. It felt as if those downcast words and eyes burned in Tony’s peripheral vision. But after a split second the gray form flinched a little and he looked back at the troll. Tony wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to look at the other.   
  
That accented voice faltered more then it had a moment before as he pulled himself forward a little. “I… I'm s-orry… My n-ame is-s Eridan… Master" the troll said looking up. Those eyes were purple ringed and looked, well the best idea Tony had was, ‘bloodshot’ from crying. There was fear in pain in that gaze and in the body they looked out from. Eridan was still shaking and his hands were so tightly cinched, his knuckles were a pale, light grey.   
  
Tony spoke before giving it any thought. "... I am a lot of things. Billionaire, pla-” He faltered back. “Genius, philanthropist... Iron Man…” He said, taking a deep breath and taking a few steps forward. He stopped when those eyes widened slightly and rerouted himself towards a chair. “But I'm not a Master. Not unless it's some wicked mutual role playing shit." Tony cracked a weak smile at his poor attempt at a joke, but smiling was the last thing he felt like doing. Being called a Master in an honest sense of the word felt... Wrong. Like his skin was crawling. Like he was taking something from the other that he had no right to take. He felt his stomach twist in a way it hadn’t in years and for a moment he smelt hot sand and felt the old feeling of someone with a loaded gun standing behind him. Waiting for any wrong move. _“This was always the plan. Don't...waste...your life.”_ Yinsin’s voice echoed through his memory. 

But, the look on Eridan's face told Tiny it was the right move. Tony knew this when the troll smiled back and wiped his own tears away. "Thanks... But. Wwhat do I call you then?" He asked, relaxing just a bit. "Call me Tony. That’s my name." Again with the words just flowed from him without him thinking about it. He really needed to get that looked into. It could not be normal. But Eridan smiled again even as he still looked incredibly sad. "Alright. Thank you Tony" he said as he changed his position and gracefully stretched out his legs, sitting on that bed normally. Tony noticed that other things were purple as well. Things he hadn’t noticed the night before.   
  
"Uh. Let me find you something to wear..." The human said, looking about. 

Tony figured the troll was about his height, if a little on the skinny and young side. _Wait. WAIT_ his subconscious shouted. He paused halfway to his closet. _REWIND_ . _Skinny and young side_ . _Skinny and_ ... Facts that he’d never even remembered learning came to his mind and he was speaking to his AI as he remembered them. A sense told him not to ask Eridan.  
  
"Fuck. Hey Jarvis? What is the maturation rate of a troll? Of…” Tony didn’t look back. “A purple blood? Of Eridan. Of Eridan..." His voice was soft as he grabbed a black button up shirt from his closet. Tony knew that blood colour affected their ageing from TV. He must have seen it on a show at some point.  
  
Jarvis was silent for only a moment. "Trolls do age differently based upon blood color Sir. However that is after they have reached their adult state. A full scan shows Eridan to be physically in what humans would call mid to late adolescence."  
  
His gut twisted painfully again and he was glad that there was only coffee in his system.   
  
"He's fifteen ...?"   
  
"Roughly Sir".   
  
Tony turned back to Eridan finally, his hands gripping that shirt in a death grip. "Your fifteen?" He asked, having trouble believing it. _No, no, no. Oh fuck no_ . The startled look on the troll's face wasn’t good.   
  
Eridan then shook his head, smiling weakly again, his gaze saying how much he wanted to comfort the adult. "No. I'm halfway to seventeen... " He said, as if he thought that made some sort of big difference. It didn’t.   
  
"SIXTEEN IS STILL A FUCKING TEENAGER!" Tony shouted in horror as he threw that shirt across the room and took his seat again. He held his head. He felt ill. So fucking ill. There were crimes he’d committed and ones he NEVER had. Tony was fairly sure he’d committed two of the ones he had never done before.   
  
Eridan flinched at the violent display and got off the bed, backing away from him before he got down on his knees.   
  
"I’m sorry. So sorry Master. Pl-ease… I didn't m-ean to be stup-id...Sorry. Pl-ease fo-rgive me Mas-ter" He then started crying again, even as his form crawled closer. Tony looked up as he noticed Eridan's interesting accent again after a moment. It acted up when he was scared.   
  
"I'm not your Master. There is nothing to forgive. I..." He wanted to say he was sorry, but could not. He was the one who should be sorry. But all he wanted to do was down a full bottle of vodka. "Get up Erian.   
  
Tony steeled himself and got up again and went back to his closet. He grabbed some black sweatpants with a drawstring, along with that thrown shirt and walked over to the boy this time. He offered his hand to the still kneeling teenager. Eridan grabbed his hand and Tony pulled him up. Eridan then took the clothes, but did not put them on.   
  
"Mas-Tony? M-ay I take a showwer first please?" The boy asked.   
  
Tony was going to hurl. That scared, soft voice is what broke the last of Tony’s resolve. He was going to get the vodka.

"Yeah kid. Go ahead. Shower is through there". 

Once Eridan was safely in the shower Tony left the room, going first to his kitchen and grabbing the aforementioned drink, before he went to his workshop. Once there he proceeded to pound at the wall, drink that bottle and scream.   
  
What had he done? Fuck.   
  
"Fuck. Jarvis. Get Pepper on the phone. I need her" he said. It was time to apologise. 

-Later that day- 

He’d told her everything and she did what she did best. Pepper had jumped into action, getting everything set up for a 16 year old boy in one of the many empty guest rooms. She had then, without consulting Tony, scheduled a doctor visit for Erudan at a specialty clinic that saw only trolls. The fantastic woman was now having everything delivered and set up.All in the span of a few hours.   
  
Eridan had long since been distracted by Jarvis when he was told he could order a whole new wardrobe online. It turned out the teen liked clothes. It's been hours and the troll was still occupied. Tony knew that from the feed he was watching in his workshop. 

  
His mind was so focused on his own guilt that he didn’t even notice the redhead was coming his way until she opened the door. "Pepper!" Tony said, standing as she walked in. The handymen were still bringing the furniture to the boys room. He moved closer and opened his arms. His eyes were red rimmed and his knuckles were bloody. Tony was also aware of what he smelled like. Booze and puke.   
  
Pepper glared. "Mr. Stark. I’ll only ask you once to keep your hands to yourself" she said, deflecting him with an open hand.   
  
"Quite right. How unprofessional of me Miss Potts" Tony said, before turning away, swaying on his feet. Outside he was smiling but he knew he deserved the cold shoulder and worse.   
  
"Where is Eridan?" Pepper asked, quite professional.   
  
"Oh. I had Jarvis tell him he could pick out clothes. He's on a computer in the living room picking them out".   
  
She nodded and moved to leave the room but she stopped in the doorway. “Tony, you need to sober up. You can’t wallow here in your self pity. You can’t just give him back”. She said, not turning around, before she did leave and the doors shut behind her.   
  
“Pepper…” Tony tried. He got up to follow her out, but decided against it. He just sunk to the ground right there. She was right. He knew that. But he didn’t want to. He didn’t feel like he had the strength. But, he was Iron Man. A hero and… He could do anything he put his mind to. “Jarvis…?”   
  
“Coffee is brewing now Sir”. The Ai answered.   
  
“Thank you”. Tony held his head, going back to watching the feeds. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am trying to tag all the needed tags. If you have a suggestion, please let me know.


	3. Fine (Karkat POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat just has to be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *WARNING* THIS CHAPTER IS GRAPHIC. 
> 
> There is NO NEED to read it to understand the plot. 
> 
> I wanted to try my hand at actually writing sex scenes.

**Enter: KARKAT**

He had once heard someone say that the phrase “ _your_ _body is a temple_ ”. It had been from the fucking TV or some shit. Hearing it had made him laugh, which had got him hit. The funny thing was the mental image it brought up. Temples were holy places of worship with nuns and monks and all that loaded fucking bull shit.  
  
His body was only a temple if temple could also be a fucking synonym for ‘ _body at the other end of the FUCKING GLORY HOLE in a bathroom stall wall at the dirtiest strip club in Vegas’_. The quote still crossed his mind almost every day. It had wiggled it’s way inside scarred its self inside his fucking think pan!   
  
The boy once again tried to pull out the ridiculous FAKE ASS FUCKING mental image by yanking at his own black hair. He felt like his body had been used more than a bus stop toilet and it really bothered him when he compared himself to the idea of a temple. 

Karkat’s body had never, **EVER** been his. Something he understood on a core level. He was property, meant to be used in any way his user saw fit. Usually he was fine with that, what the fuck was he supposed to do about it anyway?   
  
But not this morning. Not when he thought of that fucking lie. This morning he was bothered.   
  
His short body was half crouched, half cured up inside his _kennel_ , head turned at a familiar, yet still awkward angle. The cage was far too small for him to sit with his legs straight, much less lay down. It was the same place he was put back every night after he had served his purpose. 

The scarred boy realised he’d probably have been used even then if it were not detrimental to his health and the fact that there were only so many night time security guards. Still…there were enough guards that he didn’t get much sleep. Add to that that he woke up early, not wanting to be caught asleep when _he_ arrived… The troll couldn’t keep the pitiful whine from escaping his lips.   
  
Karkat took the time to reflect on what he called his life. Or rather, what he called a fucking _SHITTY ASS FUCKING JOKE_. It always had been one. 

When he had been a newly pupated troll he'd been shipped out, then probably fucking stolen by a group of men. Not long after he’d been sold to an extremely sadistic and abusive owner. The man had quite literally beat and raped Karkat every single day he was home for the first year the boy had lived there. Letting his friends and brothers get in on the action. As much as that hurt though… He desperately wanted to be back there again. He’d learned to live with it. His master was there, but… so was Sollux.   
  
_“You’ll be fine KK. I’ll thee you again. Until then… Jutht be_ **_fine_ ** _. OK?”_ Those red and blue eyes had stared at him. The last words Sol had-

_That_ was a thought that Karkat did manage to shut down. Thinking of the other troll there without him… It made him wanna die.   
  


Again he grabbed his head and stifled a whine. He wanted to banish the temple thoughts, but they wouldn’t leave him be.   
It was gonna be OK. He was fine.   
  
Karkat didn’t know what exactly he’d done to anger his Master so much. He’d done his best to fucking behave and give his master what he wanted. 

But… when he’d been 12 years old, he’d suddenly been sold. There hadn’t been any warning and he hadn’t known where he was going when he’d been taken from that apartment. He’d had 10 minutes to process it and say goodbye to- He’d be fine.   
  
It had turned into a humiliating experience in which he was displayed in a number of ways. His old master had settled for only $1600’s thanks to how scarred and used up his body had been at that point. 

He'd been bought to be the ‘relief’ at a Troll Pet Shop, called “Trolls R Us”, as he was considered too scarred up and badly behaved to sell. 

His behaviour honestly wasn’t intentional. The red blood didn’t know why he couldn’t stop himself from lashing out. But occasionally something burning inside of him just snapped and he’d feel backed into a corner and he wanted to make them _ALL FUCKING HURT_ … just as much as he hurt.   
  
He hated everything. But most of all… _“I hate my fucking self”_. 

It was all fine. He just had to make it all **_fine_ ** .   
  
Every single morning except for Thursdays and Holidays, he was dragged from the small cage he was kept in, inside of the bosses office, and forced into one of the much larger cages that housed the trolls for sale. If he didn’t comply right, the troll keepers had fucking cattle prods. The trolls he was given too were either getting violent, despite their meds, and needed the stress relief or they had been very well behaved and were being given a reward. Usually that second was OK and even enjoyable at times. The first… well, it could go either way. The human handlers fucked him too, usually his ass as they said his ‘troll pussy’ was too loose already. It was fine, trolls didn’t use him in that unnatural feeling way. It was “ _ALL FUCKING FINE!_ **_ALL OF IT_ ** _!”_

Why did he _want_ his body to be a temple? Why was that stupid quote making him cry…?  
  
The door opened for the day to start and he flinched back from the sound. The clock said it was too early. He’d thought he had more time… fuck… The boy wiped his eyes on his bare arm. “ _I WON’T FUCKING CRY FOR THEM!”_ He couldn’t show them how fucking pathetic he was…   
  
The shop owner didn’t bother to sit down at his desk. Instead he leaned over and opened that cage, grabbing Karkat by his arm, pulling him out. It hurt his joints and he gritted his teeth tightly.   
  
“Let's have a quicky before I send you out there to get all colored up. You’d like that, ehh whore?” The man asked. Karkat hated his fucking voice and he was so tired. “You like me, don’t you boy?” 

He didn’t reply. He couldn’t, though that part of him that burned wanted too. He wanted to-   
  
“ _I’LL_ _FUCKING SCREAM”_  
  
To tell that fat fuck just how disgucting he thought the human was. How much he hated him. 

  
But he really couldn’t. They had pierced his lips shut so he was no longer able to curse or bite them, or the trolls, a few weeks after he was bought. Karkat drank all of his meals now.   
  
The boy didn’t fight as he was laid down on that desk. There was no point. He just spread his legs and looked at the white ceiling. It was peeling…   
  
He really wished he hadn’t woken up thinking about his body being a temple again. Two candy apple red tears welled up in his eyes, threatening to slide down his face as he heard the zipper being pulled down.   
  
Karkat kept his eyes wide, willing them to dry up as large hands wrapped themselves around his thighs. 

He was fucking **fine…**

  
  


**-Warning Graphic Scene-  
  
**

Karkat ignored it as he was pulled into position and that hand moved from his thigh to press into his nook. He pretended that he couldn’t feel or hear it. Focusing instead on the ceiling still.   
  
It took a moment, before he felt himself drift away to the point where he could ignore it. He was one with that peeling paint. _  
__“No I ain’t. I’m a fucking liar.”_

Karkat didn’t feel it as his own fluids were used as lube to slicken that human’s cock.   
_“Fuck, why am I so wet already?”_  
  
He didn’t winch or gasp as the cock pushed into a place where it wasn’t supposed to go. _  
__“Why can’t I get used this fucking sensation? It’s pathetic.”_

There were no wet sounds or moaning coming from between his legs.   
_“Oh fucking god! My hips hurt so bad.”_  
  
His body didn’t react and his bulge didn’t slip from his body.   
_“I really am nothing but a disgusting fucking whore.”_   
  
His body didn’t betray him because there was nothing happening for it to betray him with.   
_“Why is he touching my bulge? Please DON’T FUCKING TOUCH IT!”_

There wasn’t a quickly softening cock pulling out of his body and he didn’t have the humans fluids inside of him.   
_“I don’t want to go to the others. Please. Please. Please… I don’t wanna go. I am so sore and so fucking tired”._

  
“Get up. Let’s go slut. They’re waiting for you. The big'uns acting up too, so you’ll be visiting him once you’re finished with the others”.   
  
A pull to his arm and Karkat followed along.   
_“No… Fuck… no… I can’t take him. He’s TOO BIG! He'll fucking **BREAK ME AGAIN**!”_   
  
Karkat was **fine**. This was OK. He’d be fine.   
  
_“It’s not fine. Please. Just fucking kill me already. Sollux, I can’t fucking do this”._


	4. Forbidden Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eridan remembers his past. 
> 
> Pepper finishes up. 
> 
> Tony can't bring himself to say some words, so he makes a promise instead.
> 
> (Graphic warning in text. Skip it if you want. It's not needed for plot.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This IS the longest single chapter I have ever written! Can you BELIEVE IT? How did I already write this much?!
> 
> I'd really appreciate reviews letting me know what you all think. I write for the reviews man. 
> 
> Also, a beta would be nice.

**-Enter: Eridan, Monday afternoon-**

Eridan was sitting at the computer, looking over the items he had already picked out. Or, at least that is what he appeared to be doing. In reality he was still in shock. It had subsided for a few moments when he had really gotten into picking out the clothes, but now.  
  
He’d seen a shirt that had reminded him of a shirt his former masters’ mother had bought him. It’s just been a generic royal purple t-shirt with a white horse silhouette on it. The one he’d been given had had a superhero on it instead. But that didn’t matter. The memories came into his mind. When she’d pulled it out of that bag. The constant smile that had taken over her kind round face.  
  
He had loved her so much. 

He remembered the first time he’d ever seen her. Her smiling face looking at him through the bars of his cage had been like a bright light in a confusing and cold place.  
  
Eridan had been just six years old... 

**  
****-Starting Roughly Ten Years Ago: TROLLS ‘R’ US-** **  
  
**

**  
**  
_“Oh, sweety. Look at him! Isn’t he lovely? Oh...and he’s so shy.” The little boy looked up at her voice and watched the blonde woman. “Oh, honey! We have to get him, look, he’s so friendly.” She had said, pulling at the arm of her male companion. It was true, Eridan had shiley smiled at her when he’d been brought into the ‘viewing room’. He had been told that his best bet to find an owner was to smile and be sweet. The only way out of the cells was with a human. Eridan wanted out, though he didn’t know why._ _  
__  
__It had worked. The pretty blond woman and her grumpy looking, but smiling, husband had chosen him. “You are going to be the perfect gift for our Matthew! He’s turning 14 year olds today! He’s always wanted a little brother!” She’d turned and kissed the blond man, before squealing and waiting as he went and paid. Those words had puzzled Eridan. Brother wasn’t a word that was used with trolls. Trolls didn’t have siblings. Only humans did. She had said it anyway though, and masters couldn’t be wrong._ _  
__  
__Once he’d been paid for, she had taken his small cool hand in her larger warm one and led him out to the car. There she’d buckled him and leaned over, before kissing his forehead._ _  
__  
__“Dear, don’t coddle him so, you might be scaring the little fellow”. Her husband's deeper voice had said from behind her form. She had shh’ed him and stroked Eridan's hair softly as she buckled herself in next to him. It had been strange, but her smile and bright eyes had made everything right from the first moment he’d seen her._

_That night he’d been introduced to her son, his master. She had told him to call the elder boy his ‘brother’ and to call her ‘mom’. Eridan had, unwilling to disappoint her. It had all been great. Matthew had never seemed too much like him, but she had. He had everything he could possibly want and he was safe and perfectly happy..._ _  
__  
__For about the first two years.  
_ _  
__Then Matthew had started molesting him.  
  
_ **(Graphic Warning)** _  
__  
__It had started abruptly._ _  
__  
__Eridan had been laying down to go to sleep after their mother had finished reading him a story when his door had opened. Matthew had entered his room without saying a word. The other had shut and locked that door silently behind him, before he’d got into bed with the troll. The teenager had wordlessly reached down between them and slipped a hand down Eridan's pajama pants._ _  
__  
__Eridan had struggled at first of course. Matthew covered his mouth with one hand before he’d used the fingers of that one down his pants and dug them into the folds protecting the child's bulge. It had hurt. He had then leaned close to Eridan’s ear and whispered a short speech. “If mom or dad finds out about this they will get rid of you. Don’t fucking think they won’t. Mom might fucking_ **_ADORE_ ** _you, but Dad will make her. You’re a fucking animal, not their real kid. You’re just a pathetic troll and they’ll say you’re a bad influence on me” his words had seemed to freeze the already cool blood in Eridan's body. “They don’t love you, you know that. Not like they love me. You’re just a thing”. It had made Eridan cry so much that he had soaked the pillow case in his purple tears. But that had not been the deepest purple that stained those linens the next morning._ _  
__  
__When she’d caught him stripping the bed, Eridan had lied and said he had had an accident. After that he’d started to have a lot of accidents. Matthew had first raped Eridan for the first time the week before Christmas that year. By that time the elder had forced Eridan to do many other things._

  
**(End Warning)**

_But that was just the nights._ _  
__  
__Every day their mother had still smiled at him like the sun. They’d baked cakes, done housework together and played games. They went grocery shopping and watched soap operas. She had always hugged him, kissed his head, told him what a good troll he was. How much she loved him. Every night until he was 14 she had read to him before bed. Every day she cooked him food, she’d done his laundry, and seemed to adore him every moment of every day. She even taught him to read, write and do math. But it had been when he was 14 that everything had suddenly gone to hell._ _  
__  
__Matthew had always been cruel and strangely violent. He’d gotten suspended from multiple high schools, dropped out of college, and regularly bombed interviews. It got so bad that him and his parents were constantly at odds with each other. It’d descend into screaming matches between him and his father, leading their mother to tears. Then one night it had all come to a head._ _  
__  
__Mom and dad had gone out to a company dinner and Matthew had been tasked with watching Eridan. He hadn’t wasted any time before dragging Eridan over and fucking the troll across the living room table. That was when mom had walked into the room quite suddenly, having come back 20 minutes after they’d left, when she realised she had forgotten her cell phone._ _  
__  
__Eridan caught sight of her first and he had only been able to stare in horror as his body rocked the fucking._ _  
__  
__Her face had contracted in just as much horror before she’d then screamed. Dad had rushed in hearing her before seeing Matthew. The elder man had pulled his son off and started to yell at him, whacking Matthew again and again, shouting something. But all Eridan had heard were muffled sounds and ringing in his ears as his world came crashing down around him._ _  
__  
__He’d run to his room and started packing. All of the lies Matthew had whispered to him over the years flooded back to him. He couldn’t… He couldn’t GO TO THE POUND. THEY’D KILL HIM. Her face had flashed in his mind. Contorted in such horror as she’d looked at him…_ _  
__  
__Things had passed quickly after that. His master suddenly had his hand, and he was pulling Eridan out, his own stuff in his hands. Mom had reached for him, but then his master had said something and she’d pulled back, covering her mouth in horror. The look she had given Eridan then. It crushed him. There was no describing it. Then they were in a cab and pulling away from the only home Eridan had ever had. Eridan had not been sure when he’d gotten pants on, but they were black and tight. Mom and dad had never called or come looking for him. His ‘brother’ had promised him such._ _  
__  
__Matthew had brought them to crash at a friends house, letting said friend fuck Eridan in place of rent. That is what Eridan quickly became. Currency. Something to be traded for a room, drinks at the bar, a hoodie. Anything Master had wanted Eridan’s body had been paid for. It had sometimes hurt and he’d begun to feel dead inside. But even then, Matthew had been his last connection to his childhood and to her._ _  
__  
__He’d been his big brother, even if he were a bad one and, despite it all, Eridan had thought Matthew loved him. He’d thought Matthew needed him, wanted him. He’d loved him after it all._ _  
__  
__Then, the night before, Eridan been sitting in the corner of that cheap motel room, dressed only in an old t-shirt when master had walked in and thrown clothes at him. Nice clothes._ _  
__  
__The words he’d said had dashed any hope Eridan had had at seeing the clothes._ _  
__  
__“Get the fuck cleaned up you fucking useless twat! I fucking sold your worthless ass. We’re going to meet your new master and you better FUCKING TREAT HIM NICE. I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU WITH A CROWBAR IF YOU RUIN THIS SHIT FOR ME”. He’d screamed._ _  
__  
_**-Present day-** **  
  
**

Eridan had dressed and made sure he looked nice.  
He'd gone to that party, filled with all those drunk people.  
He’d let those plastered hands grope him all over.  
He’d made sure he treated his new master nice, a man he’d never met.  
Let the guy fuck him and sweat all over him.  
Done his utter best to please him in every way.  
All in a hase.  
Eridan hadn’t wanted to die after all.  
  
He had been on autopilot. But then, that morning it had just hit him. He’d been separated from the last person in his life he thought loved him.  
  
Just...Sold. And it broke him inside.  
  
The purple blooded boy no longer cared about any of those clothes. Clothes were stupid. Eridan closed the screen and turned away, putting his head in his hands.

  
  
**-Enter: Tony Stark-  
**

Tony had eventually sobered up enough and he’d gone out to speak to Pepper. They’d had a long talk and he'd admitted to himself that she was right, just as she normally was about these things. He could do this. Tony was a genius, he could figure out how to care for a teenager. It wasn’t like Eridan was an infant.  
  
However she'd left over two hours ago, after being there for over six hours and Tony… He wasn’t feeling so sure anymore. On his screen he could see that Eridan was still staring at that computer. Tony had asked Jarvis what the boy was doing and the Ai had told him that the boy hadn’t done anything other than stare and move the mouse when the screensaver popped up for the last hour and a half. 

It could not be a good sign. But... Tony didn't know what to say to the teenager. Jarvis had managed to find an interesting website in the depths of the web that protested the treatment of Trolls as pets called “ **FuchsiaChum.com** ”. It had a lot of research and even video logs of trolls speaking about their own culture, health, diet and stuff. The typing had been quite strange, but Tony had Jarvis summarising it anyway. His eyes were still on that gray skinned form. 

"Sir?” Jarvis said, cutting into Tony’s spying. “Eridan has moved from the computer, closing his tabs"  
  
Tony nodded, not wanting to have to look away yet. Eridan… didn’t look well. A pain was starting to build in Tony’s stomach once again. "Buy whatever he had in his cart or whatever it appeared he liked" Tony said. The adult then stopped as he rethought that. "Wait. Don't get anything that shows his stomach, his thighs, is skin tight or has offensive vocabulary..." He adminded. He'd seen what that kid wore the night before. That feeling intensified as he felt his nausea build up again. "No V necks ether..."  
  
The black haired form on the screen appeared to be crying again. Tony took a deep breath and knew the time had come. He had to go and speak to the kid. He got up then made his way to where he knew Eridan was. This was going to be tough. 

"Eridan." Tony said, once he’d entered the living room. The troll froze, halfway to the doorway that led to the bathroom. His head slowly turned towards Tony’s, fear still on his eyes.   
  
That look twisted his gut even more. "Eridan I just wanted to say..." Tony was going to say it. He was going to apologize and ask how he could make it right. He was going to ask what the matter was and fix it all. He was going to open Pandora's box as it were. He-  
  
  
"Do you wanna see your new room kiddo?" -Chickened out.  
  
Eridan sighed, whipping his eyes on the borrowed shit and nodded, looking down. "Ye-yes mas-Tony. Yes Tony" he said. The half spoken word followed the superhero as he led the way. 

The teenagers room was not far from his own room Tony noted. There was probably a reason Pepper did that, even if Tony didn't know it and couldn’t imagine why. He opened the door nevertheless and caught his first sight of it. Had he really not watched when the handymen were setting it up? That wasn’t good.  
  
"Here it is, it’s... Very purple" Tony noted, unable to make intelligent conversation apparently. Purple walls, purple bedding, purple accent with blue furniture. It had everything the boy would need. From a computer, to a view of the city. Eridan looked amazed. "I… T-Thanks..." He said in awe, his wide eyes holding so much gratitude that Tony didn’t know what to think of it. It eased the pain in his stomach however.  
  
"Err... Welcome" he'd have to thank Pepper later. 

As the troll looked around his room Tony got up the guts to ask. "Why were you crying?" Eridan froze, his back to Tony. "I... It wwas just. I..." Eridan sat down on the bed, head again going to his hands. "I wwas... Lonely."  
  
Tony stared. "Oh". That made sense he supposed. Teenagers liked company and, didn’t they need it for normal development?  
  
Eridan nodded, a weird little half smile, half grimace donning his lips. "Yeah... Heh. It's ok noww though... Tony". Yellow eyes turned to look at him again, a softness to them.  
  
Tony shook his head. "If you're lonely I'll have to get you another troll to hang out with". The words just came out of his mouth once again. But, Tony didn’t want to ever cause Eridan pain again. Once again the pain inside him seemed to dim. Maybe, he could make it all up to Eridan without ever saying those forbidden words. Actions were better anyway. 

"Wwhat?" Those eyes were wide again.


	5. Trolls R Us!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony follows through with his promise. Only, he doesn't just get one, nicely behaved healthy troll. 
> 
> Nooo... That'd be too easy apparently. 
> 
> He needs bourbon.

**-Enter Tony: Tuesday-**

**  
** **  
**

Another troll. What an idea. It was a preposterous idea. Scandalous even and should never have been suggested.    
  
But it was too late for that.    
  
Eridan had flushed and smiled a little, before giving a small nod. “I… I’ve never hung out wwith another troll… Not really… Seen one once or twwice…” The teenager's hands were twisting nervously in his shirt, but he’d looked so happy.    
  
  


That nervous reaction was why Tony currently found himself parked in front of the most well-known Troll Pet Shop in the whole city. It was oddly called 'Trolls R Us'. An ironic name when one really thought about it. At least the trolls themselves found it really, really fucking ironic. The voice in Tony’s head, that he was now once again aware was his conscience, sure thought it was ironic. 

The hero sighed before he got out of his car and started to make his way into the store. He wasn’t ready for this and was far from elated about what he was currently doing. How was he supposed to take care of another teenager? Why the fuck had he EVER considered this? _ ‘You wanted to avoid saying sorry to him and you wanted to make Eridan happy.’  _ OK, that time it’d sounded weirdly like Pepper. 

Inside the building there was an entry room. It was painted white and plastered with obviously photoshopped and blandly hallmark looking posters of happy trolls with families.    
  
It was both disturbing and disgusting in a way. Something about the trolls faces… didn’t seem right. It was like they’d been… dumbed down maybe? It had to be, the genius decided. He might not be the best at dissecting people’s emotions, but even he could see basic subliminal manipulation like that.    
  
He turned away from the eerie posters and to the pretty young woman who was sitting behind the front desk. Once she got a good look at Tony, she jumped up. Flushing red and dusting invisible specks from her short pencil skirt. "Oh. Mr. Stark! You're early! We were not expecting you for well over an hour!" She said, a hand going up to play with a strand of her bleached blond hair. She seemed nervous, but not just in the ‘flirty’ way women usually got with him. Tony assumed that her boss wasn’t ready for him yet, and she was trying to stall him, as well as get in his pants. 

Tony narrowed his eyes and tried not to look annoyed or bored. It wouldn’t do. For all he knew, she’d just get more flustered. As much as he hated this game of running around, he put on his best ‘I am THE Tony Stark’ smile and leaned over, putting an elbow in the desk and winking at her. "I had some free time so thought I'd come in early and hang out a little longer. Why don't you show me the trolls?" He asked, smiling and looking the woman up and down. If nothing else, he was good at flirting. 

"Oh! Uhh… I'll go and get my boss right away. He's in his office." she said, before running to go and get her employer.    
  
He pulled back from the desk and let the smile drop from his face. This would have been so much easier if he’d drunk some brandy before coming. Maybe then his heart wouldn’t be beating so hard in his chest and he wouldn’t already be annoyed.    
  
She came back with her boss in less than 5 minutes. 

Honestly, he wasn’t what Tony had expected.    
  
The store owner was a tubby, balding little man who wore a suit and seemed like he was trying his best to look professional, but he came off looking like a used car salesman. Complete with sweat, even though this place was air-conditioned. He shook Tony's hand in his own meaty one and seemed thrilled to see him, a wide yellow toothed smile on his ruddy face.    
  
"Mr. Stark, a pleasure to meet you. Clement Winchester. Sorry I was not here to greet you but you are-"    
  
Tony interrupted him there. "Early. I know. Take me to see the trolls". Fuck hanging out a ‘little longer’. He wanted out already. This man was as disturbing as those posters. God damn, it was like that meeting Pepper had forced him to attend 5 months before with the chip people. Tony didn’t even remember what their product had claimed to do. Just that they’d smelled like potato chips.    
  
The man paled at that order. "Mr. Stark, usually we show you images of the trolls and bring them to you in one of our waiting rooms. I think you would find th-"    
  
"I would not find that preferable, if that's what you were going to say. Take me to see the trolls". This was just like that fucking meeting. Annoying and evasive. The man made a scrunched up  _ ‘pouty’  _ face, but did as he was told. _ ‘He’s like an adult toddler’ _ . 

Tony was led by the man down a long, brightly lit hallway that must have held the viewing rooms. Each room’s door was brightly colored and had a largish glass window embedded. Inside he could see they were just as garishly colored in block swatches and childish patterns. At the end, behind a Japanese paper screen door, there was a thick windowless metal door with a card swipe lock.   
  
Once they walked through it, they arrived in the second corridor that looked as if it had been taken from a prison. Dim lighting, cement walls and flooring. Even bars for the outfacing walls. These were cells, plain and simple. Tony felt his gut twist again. A flask, he should have brought a flask with bourbon.    
  
Inside the cells were the trolls, all dressed in matching gray shirts and black pants. They had been separated by age and blood color, it seemed. Tony noticed that each troll wore a thick numbered metal collar with a blinking green light and each cell had a mechanical device posted at the rear wall. It too had a blinking green light.    
  
His conscience started to poke at him again, but he didn’t need it too. This place was wrong. It seemed almost… criminal. However, this wasn’t illegal and so Tony pushed it away to think about later. He had enough to deal with after all, without letting himself dwell on things he couldn’t change. Besides, people who could afford trolls were rich, and most probably took good care of their pets. He clamped down on that voice’s reply. Not wanting to hear it.   
  
As Tony walked past the cells, he saw a strangely small one that housed only two trolls. It puzzled him for a moment as all the others had held between 5 and 10. But something else was strange as well. He stopped walking and turned to look again. They weren’t the same blood color and one was buck naked. Not only that, the small one was curled tightly in on itself and shaking like a leaf. It was also covered in layers of scars and fucking  _ littered  _ with bruises. It honestly looked like it had been run over.    
  
Tony had seen bad abuse before, but this… was the worst case he’d ever seen in person.    
  


The  _ ‘toddler man’ _ reached back for Tony, attempting to pull him along and away from the two. "Those are damaged. You wouldn't want them." He said. Tony removed his hand promptly.    
  
The boss let out a nervous chuckle at the billionaire's angry glare and wiped his hand on his ugly suit. He then tried to point at some expensive purple sea bloods across the hallway. “These are in mint condition! Very long-lived too!”    
  
"I already have one of those," he said, eyes still narrowed. His annoyance had turned to anger at some point, probably when he’d seen the red blood.    
  
"Oh. Well. We have some nice Land Purple bloods, as well as a few Blue bloods and-"    
  
Tony cut him off. "How are they damaged?" He asked, ignoring the blue bloods in the cell in the next cell over. A headache was coming on, adding to the overall irritated feeling welling up in his nerves. He was aware the look he was giving the other was annoyed and cold.    
  
The man was sweating more, even though this room was even colder than the entry room. It had soaked into the _ fat fuck's  _ white collar. "Oh. The bronze blood has hip problems", the man said, waving his hand dismissively and looking away from the hero’s face, obviously nervous. "Rather sad really".    
  
"What about the other. The Red blood?"    
  
The fucker had the nerve to look disgruntled. "He's not for sale". The man’s nose actually went up in the air as he said it, and he clicked his tongue.    
  
Tony raised a brow. Taking that as a challenge. "Why would you have a product that's not for sale?" He asked, advancing towards Mr.  _ Winchester _ . He had to hand it to the man, the fucker stood his ground and glared back at him as if Tony was the annoying one.    
  
"He's used to pacify the other trolls".

The billionaire playboy froze mid step. His mind reeled for a moment. "He's used as a whore?" He asked, incredulously, the disbelief evident on his face.   
  
The _Disgusting, Fucker_ , looked insulted, and he was sweating more as he shook his head. "That is an inaccurate term for his service. He's more like a-"   
  
"Yes. I suppose you're right. Whores get paid." Fuck booze. Tony wanted to beat the shit out of this man. If he’d been drunk, he might have. As it was… he was going to **_ruin him_**.   
  
"Mr. Stark. If we could get back to the tour..." He said impatiently, turning away from Tony.   
  
Tony was no longer amused in ANY sense of the word. He somehow felt dirty and insulted, and he wanted to be as _FAR_ from Mr. Clement Winchester as he _possibly could be_.   
  
"I want the Bronze and Red blood". He said bluntly, crossing his arms. If this man wanted to play ‘big boss child games' Tony would be sure he fucking won. The fat fuck glared and shook his head. "They are not for sale. If you would like a bronze blood we do have-"   
  
"I want those two".

"No".

"Yes".

"No. Mr. Stark I will not-"

"Sell me the trolls or I will buy your entire company and  **fire** all current employees". His voice came out of his lips as cold as frostbite and twice as threatening.    
  
The man froze, his face going red and scrunching up even more than it had before. Then, he seemed to relent, even as he stomped his foot like a child. "Yes. Whatever YOU want, Mr. Stark. Right this way.” He started to lead the way back, out of the cells. “Will that be cash or check?"    
  
Tony smirked at the others' antics, even as he still plotted to get him fired. "I'll have my secretary transfer the funds. Truy and screw me and I’ll sue you". The threat made the man stiffen up, even as he led him to one of the waiting rooms. This time Tony took a seat. It was colored all in ‘grass green’. 

As he waited he realized what he actually had gotten into. He'd bought two new trolls. Not one. Both were teenagers with medical issues and possibly mental issues. They were being processed right now, but any minute now they would be fully his responsibility.

  
He took out his phone and contacted Jarvis, telling him to text Pepper what had happened, not having it in him to call her at the moment. He knew his AI would relay the message far better than he could at the moment. His head was pounding as if he had a hangover, but he knew he didn’t. Maybe it was withdrawal? Tony was no fool, he knew he drank enough. Looking at his hands, they were shaking ever so slightly.    
  


The small, short bronze blood was the first that was brought out. He was now dressed in a green T-shirt with loose blue jeans. His smile was small, but it looked very sincere. The boy's horns were large, like an Angus cows’. He had a bad limp.    
  
The smile Tony showed him didn’t have to be faked. "Hey. What's your name?"    
  
The troll looked up, nervously wringing his hands and chewing on his lip. "Um. Uh. Tavros Sir". He looked up and his eyes were hopeful and clear. "You bought me and Red Sir?" He asked. He also had a little bit of a stutter, though his seemed to be because of nerves.    
  
"Yeah. I bought you and Red." Tony said, reaching out and patting the troll’s head. Tavros was taller than he’d thought when he’d seen the boy sitting down. Approximately 5 ft 10, but definitely on the skinner side. Still, he looked healthy. Tony patted the green seat next to him. “Come, sit down while we wait for Red…” Standing couldn’t be good for whatever was wrong with the boy's legs. 

A few minutes later the other troll was brought out. It was a male as well, Tony noticed. Though, Red was far shorter and skinnier than Tavros. Tony guessed that he was 5 ft 1ish, and severely underweight. The kid was dressed in a brown shirt and loose black jeans that had been cut to fit his short frame. The shirt was too big and hung on his shoulders. He didn't look at Tony. Not at all.

"Hey.” Tony reached out for him, wanting the Troll to look at him. “Tavros said you were called Red. That your-"    
  
"Mr. Stark. Your payment has gone through. You can-". The boss said as he banged open the door and caused Tavros to shoot to his feet and the other boy to back away and curl himself into the corner. His head hit the wall with an audible sound and his hands went over his head immediately.    
  
Tony's death glare shut up that fucker in an instant. But Tony couldn't help it anymore. He stood up and took two large steps towards him, grabbed the other by the neck, and pulled him close. "I was talking to  _ them _ . I don't like your voice. Shut up and GET THE FUCK OUT". He then let him go and went back to the small troll.   
  
The man left and Tony looked back at the two. Tavros was looking at his feet, eyes showing fear and the red blood was shaking. “... I am sorry Tavros. Please… sit back down”. He watched the bronze until he did it, before crouching down and looking at the other.    
  
“Hey… Don’t you wanna get out of this shit hole? Let me take you home…” The boy still didn’t look up. Tony noticed a strange wetness soaking through the kid's black jeans. “Hey… don’t be scared…” He reached out and touched the boy's knee.    
  
That had been a bad decision.    
  
Red screamed and kicked out, catching Tony in the hand. But the pain wasn’t what Tony noticed first. “... WHAT THE FUCK DID THEY DO TO YOUR MOUTH?!” he stood up and reached for the boy's head, causing him to slam back against the wall again.    
  
This time with a louder  **‘THUNK’** . A moment later those wide yellow eyes rolled back and the troll fainted.    
  
“ **FUCK** !”. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, still looking for a beta. But, look at that? It's almost half as long as the old fic ALREADY. 
> 
> Review and let me know what you think and if you have requests for characters or scenes.


	6. The Car Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tavros and Karkat have very different reactions to their new master. 
> 
> Tavros is a fan. 
> 
> Karkat... isn't.

**-Enter: Karkat, Earlier that same day-**

His body hurt so fucking bad, it was hard to think. Every twitch burned his hips, and he could feel that fluid still inside of his seed pouches. They hadn’t given him a bucket, and he wasn’t allowed to empty himself onto the fucking floor. Not that his instincts told him that’d be a good fucking idea. “ _I am so fucking disgusting. Like rotten milk on a piss stained fucking carpet. How can anyone bear to EVEN TOUCH ME?”_ He knew he couldn't bear to even look at himself in a mirror. Seeing something that _pathetic_ looking back at him… it made his blood pusher throb and not in a good way.   
  
Karkat looked up at Tavros. The bronze blood was sitting there, next to him, so close they were almost touching. But they weren’t. He’d never met this troll before. Never really given the other much thought. Just another troll in a sea of colors. He’d never even noticed that the other was always alone. Not that that mattered. No… only one thing mattered. One thing that was strange and made the aforementioned blood pusher throb in the good way. At least, he was fairly sure this was the good way. He hadn’t felt it in years.   
  
Tavros hadn’t touched him. Not even to get off.   
  
He’d been in this cell since the night before. It’d never happened before. He was always returned to his crate. But not the night before. They’d said… that he deserved a reward. He’d been dragged here after being taken from…   
  
Karkat didn’t want to think about it. Even glancing at the cell at the very end of the hall made his insides twist and the swelling burned. _“I deserved it. I was so fucking moist. I… I had to have fucking wanted it.”_ That thought wouldn’t go away, and the echoes of the much larger trolls words, his fucking laugh… rattled around in Karkat's pan.   
  
The thoughts didn’t care what he wanted. Try as he might, he couldn’t clamp them down.   
  
( **Warning** )   
  
**_“You want this little mutant blood.”_ ** _Those LARGE fingers, with their long, sharp, uncuttable claws, had been inside of him. Karkat knew, one wrong move, and he’d be sliced open from the inside._ **_“Looking at me all Black. You’re fucking wet as a bucket and twice as ugly. Listen”._ ** _The wet sound filled his ears as those fingers moved. One finger curled up and pressed against his seed sack, forcing it open. It had hurt as he emptied the genetic material that was still inside of him. From the others._ **_“I don’t mother fucking fuck with others filth. Not then and NOT FUCKING NOW”._ ** **_  
_** **_  
_** **_“A cull-able thing like you. Fucking disgusting in the most sacrilegious way.”_ ** _That hand was stroking his face now, smearing fluid on him as he laid there, shaking as the bile rose up in his throat. Karkat knew better than to throw up though. There’d be nowhere for it to go. Those yellow and indigo eyes stared into his very soul. He could feel his body react though. The very idea of that bulge going inside of him… it was like his body was trying to flood out all its fluids to meet it. His own bulge was poking out as well, just a little._ **_  
_** **_  
_** **_“The Messiah’s always did have a bulge slick for me”._ ** _There was a slick bulge pressing against his opening. But it didn’t belong to any gods or the like. It belonged to the beast who was now holding him by his entire head._ _  
_ _  
_ _Piercings didn’t mean he couldn’t scream as it pressed its way inside him. Size and force. Sheer fucking pressure. There was no getting used to it. His very bones protested._ _  
_ _  
_ ( **End Warning** )    
  


His mind didn’t feel like his own. Though it was the only thing he really had left. That other troll was in there, just like that quote from the day before and… so many other memories. Too many of them were up in his pan, rattling around. He felt shattered in ways he just didn’t have words for.   
  
Then the other’s voice was cutting into his thoughts. Soft and unsure and… pitiable in the strangest way. Like a pale imitation…   
  
“Hey, Red? Uhh.… I don’t know your name but… Uhh, Red works right?” He asked, his eyes staring into Karkat’s.   
  
All he could do was nod, and he just looked at the other, trying to focus on him.   
  
“OK! That’s… that’s umm… that’s good. So uh… do you wanna hear a story? I was told this back at… at the home I used to live at. It’s called… the story of Pupa Pan…” There was such a soft and nervous smile on those brown tinted lips.   
  
Karkat could only nod. He wanted nothing more at the moment, than to hear a story. If this was a reward… he might have to try and be good more often. Though… had he really done anything differently?   
  
He hoped there was romance in the story. Something soft where everyone was loved and adored and no one… no one was like him. 

**  
**They were half the way through that story when the human with the black hair arrived. The one who wasn’t a worker.  
  
The one… who asked questions.   
  
The one who **_bought_ ** them. “ _What the fuck is wrong with this mother fucking asshole? Fuck. What does he HAVE PLANNED? I DON’T WANNA FUCKING DIE!”  
_

 **  
****-Enter: Tony, freaking out. Tuesday-**

 **  
**Tony had called Bruce as soon as he’d gotten both boys into his car. He was shaking like a leaf, and he just wanted this all to end. He needed all the booze. Fuck, what was the strongest shit he had? He couldn’t do this shit! It wasn’t right.  
  
It’s taken everything in him to not attack the FUCKING PRICK. How could he do THAT TO A FUCKING CHILD? Tony sat there and rubbed his pounding head. Once the call connected he started speaking, looking in his rear-view mirror at Tavros who was buckled up and staring at the red troll strapped in next to him, still passed out.   
  
“OH THANK FUCK. BRUCE! I need you to come BACK. RIGHT NOW!” He listened to the pause. It seemed to last for a solid 20 seconds.   
  
“You better not have your dick stuck in a pipe”. The good doctor said, sounding tired and irritated. Much like how Tony felt.   
  
“No. NO! I… I wouldn’t fuck a pipe!” Tony protested, trying to evade what he had to say for a moment. “It’s just that I bought these two trolls and I-”   
  
There was a half strangled growl at the other end of the line. “YOU DID WHAT? HOW COULD YOU?” Bruce sounded like he was starting to turn green. There was another long pause in which Tony was scared to speak.   
  
“Tell me. You. Didn’t. That you’re fucking joking. That you don’t fucking ENSLAVE OTHERS!” The voice said, the strain was audible in the other's voice. Bruce was hanging by a thread. A thread that probably also held all of his respect for Tony as well.   
  
“It’s… it’s not what you think. I didn’t… I didn’t buy them so… so I could do anything to them or… or make them do anything to me”. Eridan's purple came to mind. Those tears and the cool body. What he’d done. “They need help Bruce. They need help so bad and… I think if I call a vet, it might be bad”. He tended to trust his instincts.   
  
“... Fine. Send a helicopter”. Bruce then hung up.   
  
Tony did as he was told, before starting to lean back. Jarvis drove them home.   
  
Bruce would be there in… 1 hour and 15 minutes. He really hopped the red blood stayed out that long and that Pepper… that Pepper would speak to him again when they met later. Tony couldn’t do it. He was going to have to drink.   
Drink this all away. **  
****  
  
**

**-Enter: Tavros, nervous and excited. Still Tuesday-**

Tavros was nervous. He couldn’t hide that. He didn’t feel good enough for an owner, even though he’d always wanted one. He'd never been in a real home, not even once.   
  
_He'd spent his whole life at one facility or another. When he'd been six years old it had been decided by his then caretaker that he would not be placed until he was a teenager._ This was a process done to keep trolls untouched until they were wanted by a crowd that liked unused, but already mature pets. There really were only three uses for pet trolls, which he’d had that drilled into his think pan long ago. Those three uses could happen all at the same time.   
  
Sex was one.   
House work was the next one.   


_“Uhh… What was the last one? Oh! Yeah!”  
_  
A service animal. 

He would have been placed at age 12, but his leg problems had started, and he'd instead been sold in a rather large shipment to his current location . He’d liked T.R.U less than his last place. _The last place had let them all hang out together, and they'd have a carpet. It’d been warmer too._ Tavros wasn’t a seablood but… he got really cold easily. It made his hips ache something fierce.   
  
The night before had been weird. The other troll had been pulled into his cell for the first time and then the door had been shut. The guard had told him that he could fuck him if he really wanted, then the human had left. Apparently the red blood was being rewarded.   
  
An old story flashed in his mind, about a troll with blood so red it had appeared like candy. A troll who… who’d tried to do something great. Tavros hadn’t really liked that story. It’d been bloody and cruel. An “everyone dies story” and not at all like Pupa Pan.   
  
Tavros hadn’t wanted to fuck the other. That… that wouldn’t be right. There was so much red blood mixed in with the indigo genetic material that was leaking out of him…   
  
He wasn’t the type of person who could add pain to something that looked that bad. It wasn’t a self-esteem issue. It was just a ‘him not wanting to be an ass’ issue.   
  
So he’d just sat there and stared at the reed blood, noticing how tightly the other troll was curled up. He wished that he could talk, that way they might have conversations. But… those piercings made that impossible and the other probably didn’t want to talk anyway. Tavros sort of assumed the other probably just wanted to sleep and not be in burning pain. There was no way that didn’t hurt more than anything Tavros had ever felt.   
  
He got really lonely in this place. But… at least he wasn’t Red. He didn’t think he could live through all of that. Tavros didn’t know what the other had done to piss the humans off so much, but it must have been REALLY BAD! He wished that the other could just listen to the humans. Humans were good and just. He’d been taught that as a young troll, and he had to believe that now. The other options… weren’t something he felt he could live with. 

Humans were good and… and one day he’d have a home. Honestly though, he’d stopped believing that when he’d been about 14 years old. No one wanted a broken troll, even if he was a virgin in the ways that mattered. It wasn’t like he’d never used his bulge before. He was the only alternian. Not some sort of human saint. 

But, everything was going to change now. Because now, he’d ACTUALLY BEEN BOUGHT! It blew his mind even more than when the other troll had been placed with him.   
  
Even more than the look on Red’s face when he’d started to tell him that story. The smaller male had seemed so… relaxed and content. He’d even smiled. Tavros had never seen him do that before.   
  
It was as if the small bronze blood was dreaming. It sure felt like a dream. Someone wanted him, and they knew about the damage and all, and they STILL WANTED HIM! The anger had scared him a bit, but… there was a lot of excitement building inside as well. He wouldn’t even have to be alone anymore! There’d be Red there too! 

The 16-year-old felt the red blood next to him flinch and shift in his sleep. The thin, scarred little troll looked scared even passed out but Tavros didn't understand why. This was good. Soon they would have a home, and they’d not be in those cells anymore. Not so cold. He’d been told about homes by some of the older trolls at his last placement. Some had even been _adults_. Adults… made something inside Tavros instinctively flinch back. But, they’d had stories. So many stories. They’d told them and argued and laughed, and he’d learned so much. Words he’d never learned, yet knew. Stories about their past and about the stars.   
  
He wondered if they really came from the stars. Could that be true? That they fell from the sky in a shower of fire on the back of a dragon?   
  
His mind was brought back to the present as the car turned, and he caught sight of the dark haired man in the mirror.   
  
This master seemed really nice in a lot of ways. He’d gotten mad that Red’s lips were pierced shut. Maybe that meant he’d take them out and Red could actually talk and tell Tavros his name and stuff?   
  
His nerves twisted up a little as another thought entered his head. What if his master didn’t like him in the long run? What would he do? Would he end up back at a facility, like those adults had? 

Tavros was still very nervous but, his excitement won out as he looked out the windows, seeing the city for the first time. Windows were great. He wished shipment trucks had them. 

  
When they arrived at a huge building and pulled in, he gave a nervous grin. This was an apartment building. He knew that, though, he didn’t really know how he knew that. Maybe one of the stories the elders had told?   
  
He wondered how high up his owner lived? It looked so fancy already. Maybe the apartment had a good view of the city?   
  
Soon they were walking to the elevator and going up. His master had pressed the very top button. That meant a… a… That meant this Master was wealthy. Then again… he had said that he had a purple blood…   
  
Tavros felt his gut twist and his heartbeat speed up. _What if the Highblood didn’t like him? What would he do then? High-bloods scared him._ He’d met very few in his life. The facilities usually separated trolls by colors. Rusts and Bronze were usually together. Sometimes there’d be a Gold, but not usually. Only ones without the red and blue eyes. He’d never met one with those eyes. But he’d been told a few stories. One was about the “ _Helmsman_ ”. That’d… not been a fun story either. Living trolls drained for their energy and feasted on by creatures that could withstand the burning of the dragon’s eye.   
  
The elevator ride was fun, and he was brought back to the present again. Very fun, even if it made his stomach feel strange.   
  
Red was still passed out over his master's shoulder. No, over their master's shoulder.   
  
He had a master.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This bunny probably won't ever die until I complete this. So... here's to hopefully fast and interesting updates. 
> 
> Reviews make me feel great.
> 
> Also, HOLY SHIT! THIS IS ALREADY HALF AS LONG AS THE ORIGINAL! 
> 
> THE ORIGINAL HAS 42 CHAPTERS! 
> 
> This is almost as long as (some of) my FUCKING TERM PAPERS!


	7. Medications and blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce treats Karkat. 
> 
> Eridan meets Tavros. 
> 
> Pepper speaks to the doctor. 
> 
> Tony is shit faced drunk.
> 
> Karkat is there.

**-Enter Bruce: That same Tuesday. 3:37 pm-  
  
** ****

Bruce arrived at the penthouse filled with trepidation. Tony hadn’t sounded good on the phone and by the sound of it… the trolls weren’t good either. The scientist sighed, he didn’t know what he was walking into. Were the two trolls dying? It took a lot to damage a troll badly, but Bruce was well aware that it happened. Far too often in fact.

The man gripped his case harder and took a deep breath as the doors opened. Once they were open, he walked forward and looked to the ceiling. “Jarvis?” He asked.  
  
“Dr. Banner. Greetings. Master Stark is in the third guest room. Please follow the arrows.” The AI said without being prompted.  
  
Bruce nodded and followed the images that appeared on the marble floor. His heart was pounding fiercely in his chest. He just had to see. Maybe Tony was over exaggerating? He doubted it, but it could happen. 

The door was open and Tony was sitting on the bed, his hand on a small gray body that was laid out on the bed. A clear bottle was in the other man's hand. It was half empty. On the other side of the room there was another troll, this one had magnificent bull like horns. Bruce idley told himself he’d have to check the boy's neck later. He was sitting on the ground. Gray eyes looked at Bruce with more worry then fear. 

“Hey Bruce. I told… I told them you were coming.” There was an actual hiccup from the flaxen haired man. He swayed a little on his feet. On the back of his shirt there was a large, dark stain. It’s color was hard to discern thanks to the darkness of Tony’s shirt. But Bruce could tell that it was a dark color. “I… I couldn’t take it. Needed a drink”. There was a deep, pathetic pain in Tony’s voice as he spoke and it radiated from his eyes. Bruce believed that he couldn’t take it as he moved closer, ignoring the bull horned boy for the moment. Once he got a good look at the boy on the bed… he sucked in an alarmed breath.  
  
“Tony, take… take the other boy out. Go… go watch TV or something”. He said, voice shaking just a little with a burst of nerves and discomfort, not even looking at the other two. He opened his case and took out the necessary medical tools. It didn’t look good, not at all. But he knew that looks could be deceiving, especially in trolls. Their body bruised jarringly and they’d look horribly injured, but their skin was thick and their bones extremely hard. Still, his gut told him this was bad. He started to undress the red blood without looking back. Those black jeans stuck to the boy's body and Bruce swallowed hard at the sickly sweet smell of genetic material. Dark genetic material, like the stain on Tony’s T-shirt. The boy was a red blood. The implications weren’t lost on the scientist.  
  
“Bronze?” He asked, hoping the other boy would understand and answer him.  
  
“I-M-me? Umm, Y-yes?” The other troll asked. He sounded a little more scared now, though he had frozen in the doorway, near Tony.  
  
“Yeah. Are you alright?” Bruce asked as he pulled those pants off and tossed them onto the white carpet. It was a problem for later.  
  
“Yeah… I… I am fine.” The boy said, voice shaking a little. His head was turned to the side, eyes down. Bruce could see that in his peripheral vision.  
  
“I’ll be out to check you out once I am done here. OK?” Having tossed those pants to the side, he started on the shirt.  
  
“Oh… what is your name?” He asked, not wanting to refer to the boy as ‘troll’ or ‘Bronze’ all of the time. Not even mentally.  
  
There was a moment of silence as both Tony and the kid hovered in the doorway. Bruce had noticed how he sort of shuffled as he walked. It wasn’t a good sign. But, he’d deal with that later.  
  
“Tavros… My name’s Tavros sir”. He said, still not looking at Bruce.  
  
“Thank you Tavros”. Bruce said sincerely, turning briefly to smile at the teenager, to reassure him everything was alright. Tavros must be worried for his friend. He noticed that Tony was bracing himself on the door frame, face flushed red as he swayed again. But, Bruce didn’t have it in him to be mad at Tony at the moment.  
  
“Please watch Tony for me Tavros. He’s an idiot and is going to need help”.  
  
The kid looked at him when he said that, in shock. His face was all nerves and his body all tension. But he nodded and said “Y-yes… Yes sir…”  
  
“I-I don’t… need to be… baby sat”. Tony protested. Bruce shot him a glare and Tony swayed back, not liking the look on Bruce’s face apparently. There was fear there. A fear Bruce had seen many times directed at him.   
  
“F-fine. Tavr-oss… let’s go watch… Star Wars”. The words slurred and if he’d had more time, Bruce would have taken that bottle from the other scientist.  
  
A moment later that door closed.  
  
Bruce wished that someone else was there. Someone who could help him with this situation. Tony hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said the kid was bad.  
  
This was one of the most severe cases of long term abuse that the Gamma scientist had seen in anyone in more than 5 years, troll or not.  
  
Not the worst, but… more than bad enough. He hoped the boy was going to be able to get through this. Not physically, he was almost positive he’d be able to save the kids body. No, it was his mind Bruce truly worried for. The abuse just showed signs of having been systematic and ruthless. Scars told stories and this boy's scars told one that was written in ruthless, relentless pain and suffering.  
  
The doctor made sure to check the red blood over from head to foot. There was a head injury he was most worried about. Once he was sure that it was a mild injury, and no obvious bones were broken, he pulled out a strong sedative and injected it into the troll's neck. It wasn’t made for trolls, but it’d do in a pinch.  
  
What he was going to do next was going to hurt and he didn’t trust the boy not to wake up. It’d happened before. Trolls recovered fast from damage and injuries. A superior human skill of theirs, but not to the point of being a mutation.  
  
“I am sorry kiddo. I’ll fix you up”. He whispered, before starting the process of cleaning the kid up. He carried the boy to the shower and washed him thoroughly. A sponge bath would probably be more orthodox, but he really wasn’t worried about a spinal injury and there was going to be a lot of fluid. Once that was done, he took him back to the bed and finished the process of cleaning out his nook and any open wounds on his body. Bruce then stitched and bandaged him up.  
  
Once all of that was done, he treated every other wound that he could find that needed medication, even applying bruise balm. Then he did a final check over.  
  
Bruce removed the piercings and checked over the boys fingers and toes to see his claw length.  
  
Troll claws could cut through a human's skin like a hot knife through butter. But he winched at the sight of them. They’d been pulled out rather than cut. At the moment they were half grown in again, but they were healing well and weren’t a threat at the moment. The kids horns were also short and stubby. Not a threat, though his teeth were damn sharp, if also undersized. In all honesty, there was only one part of him that was larger sized and that wasn’t the kids fault.  
  
Bruce left the room to go and check on Tavros.  
  
As he left he heard the click of an automatic lock.

  
**-Enter Tavros: 6:41 pm-**

  
  
The brown blood was sitting on the couch, tense as he glanced at his Master for the 1000th time that afternoon. The human was currently asleep, leaning against him while snuggling that mostly empty bottle of alcohol.  
  
He’d fallen asleep several hours before.  
  
Across from them the scary looking purple blood was still staring at them. Tavros had tried to greet him, but the other had only hissed and taken a seat, glaring.  
  
A red haired woman who said her name was Pepper had brought him in around 5:30 and then went to order some food for them.  
  
The purple blood had gone on a whispered and slightly self-deprecating rant about how Tony was ‘his master first’ and Tavros had been bought to keep _HIM_ , being Eridan, company.  
  
Once finished with his speech he’d held out his hand and introduced himself as “Eridan” and Tavros hadn’t known how to take it. He’d stuttered out his name and shook the hand of the other.  
  
It was the second weirdest introduction he’d ever had. Red had been the weirdest.  
  
Since then they’d both just sat in silence, neither wanting to risk waking the human. Making a master angry was never a good plan. Even Tavros knew that. Pepper was on a phone call in the kitchen about something called “Stark Industries”. Tavros could hear her through the wall.  
  
“Oh… Who are you?” A man's voice asked and the purple blood turned fast, standing up to look at the human from before. Tavros remembered their master calling the man ‘Bruce’. It was a nice name he thought. Not as nice as Tony though.  
  
The purple blood looked nervous but he replied. “Eridan sir. Can I help you?” He asked, cocking his head to the side.  
  
Bruce gave the sea dweller a soft smile. “No. Tony had me come to check out the red blood. Do you need a check up Eridan?” He asked. His gaze really was kind and Tavros liked his eyes.  
  
Eridan shook his head and then retook his seat, moving over to the side to make room. His gaze was turned away from the human and Tavros followed suit.  
  
Bruce didn’t sit. Instead he walked over to their master and checked him over. “Eridan? Can you help me move Tony to his bedroom?” He asked, turning back to look at the boy. Tavros decided that he liked this human a lot. Bruce cared for their master too!  
  
“Yes sir. I can.” Was that automatic reply.  
  
A minute later they both had one of master’s arms around their necks. The bottle had been placed onto the coffee table.  
  
“I-I can help”. Tavros said, not wanting to stress them out. He should be the one doing it. Bruce had to be tired and he was _a human_ and Eridan was a _sea dweller_ . Tavros’s instincts and training screamed at him not to piss either of them off.  
  
“No, Tavros. You stay seated. OK buddy?” Bruce said, smiling back at him before they walked on.  
  
Tavros flushed in shame. The human must have seen his limp. He wished that he hadn’t. Tavros wished that he wasn’t broken. He hated how useless he was. How utterly pathetic.

  
  
**-Enter Bruce: 6:44 pm-  
**

  
Once Tony was in bed and tucked in Bruce looked over Eridan again. The troll looked healthy. He couldn’t find anything wrong with him… other than the clothes he was wearing. They were Tony’s clothes and Bruce felt anger well up inside of him again. He managed to push it down again. Later… Inside of him the hulk raged, but he was getting much better at holding that back and he didn’t want to jump to conclusions.  
  
“Jarvis. Please contact the rest of the Avengers and ask them to come back at their earliest convenience.”  
  
“Yes sir. Miss Potts will also be setting up the rooms and bringing supplies for Tavros and the other boy tomorrow moring. Eridan will have his clothing delivered tomorrow as well. I took the liberty of ordering some clothing for Tavros and the other as well.”  
  
“Thank you Jarvis.” Bruce said, smiling at where he knew a camera was located.  
  
“Please alert me when the red blood shows signs of waking up”.  
  
“Of course Dr. Banner”.  
  
Bruce turned back to Eridan. “I have to give Tavros an exam. Have you eaten yet?” He asked.  
  
“Uhh… no. Not yet sir. Miss… Miss… Pepper is ordering food”  
  
“Alright. Jarvis, make sure that Pepper orders meat of some sort from someplace. Make sure there isn’t too much sugar or salt. Enough for all three of them and… a salad and some baked mac and cheese for me”.  
  
He was walking back to the living room when he paused again. “Wait… add in some type of meat that is very soft and easy to blend”. Bruce didn’t know what type that would be, but he had a feeling the red troll wasn’t going to be able to eat straight up meat. The doctor might not eat meat, but Bruce knew that trolls really shouldn’t be fed much else. They couldn’t gain much nutrition from vegetables or grains. It’d be like a human eating just fiber or some sort of useless filler. It wouldn’t hurt them, but it wasn’t nutritionally viable. Trolls were obligate carnivores.  
  
Bruce did the exam on Tavros in the livingroom and decided he’d have to go for x-rays at some point. But he was pretty sure that it was a breeding error that unfortunately plagued brown bloods. Hip dysplasia. Medicatable but not curable. Other than that and being underweight, Tavros was fine.  
  
Later, he’d have to look up if they’d need any stabilizing medications for their blood color and what supplements the three would need to take. The red blood would probably be getting injections no matter what. Be they vitamins and mood stabilizers.  
  
Bruce didn’t want to look that up in front of them though.

  
**-Enter Pepper: Tuesday. 7:00 pm -  
**

**  
**Pepper brought the food to them and let the teenagers eat at the coffee table. She then had Eridan and Tavros pick out clothing for the red blood and pick out clothing for Tavros.  
  
The woman noticed it as Eridan sort of lorded himself over the shorter boy, but they seemed to get along. She also noticed that Eridan had asked what blood color the other boy was and then both had settled on only buying red, black, white and grey clothing. The purple blood had even been careful about the shade of red. Jarvis made sure that all the options would fit the unconscious boy and that all the items were appropriate. Tavros made sure that everything had sleeves and long legs, except for a few t-shirts. He’d not looked at T-shirts and Eridan had asked why. Once Tavros explained the scars Eridan had suggested still getting t-shirts, but just getting them a little baggy.  
  
Tavros had only looked at button ups because of his horns but he’d liked a few t-shirts and been saddened. Pepper texted Jarvis to special order the few t-shirts he’d seemed to like so much, but send them to a seamstress to get a side opening. The AI confirmed he would.  
  
While they were looking, she went to speak to Bruce in the kitchen, away from them. He’d pulled her a little further away.  
  
“They have very good hearing.” He explained.  
  
“I see. Well, how is the red blooded troll?” She asked, keeping her voice down and looking in the direction of the room where she knew the boy lay.  
  
“He’ll live. But, I worry that he’d be hard to handle. Trolls… they can have fairly severe mood disorders even at the best of times and they can also have mutant-like abilities.” He looked guilty as he spoke. Pepper knew Bruce didn’t like drugging people against their will. “This boy is so damaged. Troll’s weren’t meant for what we do to them. I have a friend who studies trolls. She’s not sure if it’s a breeding error or just their predatory natures, but I’ll make sure to ask her for advice on what to do”.  
  
Pepper touched his shoulder and nodded. So far, she had a feeling that Eridan was fine at least, though she didn’t know. “Will they all need medication?” She asked, her eyes sympathetic and worried. She worried for Tony.  
  
“No...NO! Just, probably the reed blood and maybe the brown blood. The cooler colors apparently rarely have the mutant abilities and Eridan doesn’t appear to have any behavioral issues”. He said, looking a little soothed by that fact.  
  
“Alright. Well then, we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. I am very glad you’re here to help Bruce”. She touched his shoulder softly. “If you need anything, I am always around to help. Just send me an email or text”.  
  
Bruce smiled at that. “I will Pepper. Thank you. And Tony is going to be fine”. He added in.  
  
Pepper flushed, but smiled. Happy to hear that.  
 **  
******

**-Enter Karkat: Wednesday. 1:14 am -**

His whole body jerked as he started to come too. Opening his eyes, Karkat noticed that he was in a white room… on something soft. On a bed?  
  
Karkats shot up and looked around, heart beating fast.  
  
Everything swam in his vision for a moment, before he groaned. Nausea built up in his stomach and his hand went to his mouth. It stopped half way up as he caught sight of… bandages?  
  
The boy took a few moments to check himself over and touched his injuries. When his fingers went below his waist he felt the stitches. He didn’t believe it and he gasped for a moment.  
  
Cool air touched his tongue and in flash his fingers were at his mouth. A laugh built up inside his gut and he felt giddy and almost frantic.  
  
They were gone… THEY WERE FUCKING GONE! He wanted to scream and dance, but one twitch of his legs reminded him why he DEFINITELY shouldn’t dance. His own sense reminded him why he shouldn’t make much noise.  
  
He’d just gotten patched up for his new master. The last thing he wanted to fucking do would be get his injuries put back in that fast for being a _FUCKING RETARD_!  
  
Wait… Where were they? Why was he alone? What if this was a trick? _“I don’t deserve this… this has to be a fucking joke. Why in fucking hell would they do this?! I didn’t need it!”_  
  
Karkat’s inner voice was flashing up every time a human had ever done anything nice for him. There’d always been an ulterior motive. _“OH FUCK. HOW IS HE GONNA MAKE ME PAY FOR THIS?”_ Karkat hadn’t been given a choice. This was BULLSHIT. If he’d been given a choice, he wouldn’t OWN HIM A DEBT!  
  
“FUCKING HELL!”


	8. Kanaya's day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya's day with her mistress, the great designer Juliane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, racist terminology. 
> 
> Also, short chapter.

**-Enter: Kanaya, Tuesday, 12:07-  
**

  
Her room in the high rise apartment really was a lovely place. It was filled with flowers and light and vibrant bolts of fabric. The place even smelled comforting, like paper and cloth. She had her books, her plants, her computer and her hobbies. Really, she was very lucky and she knew it. Still, there were times when she felt like she was walking across a minefield and so very, very trapped.    
  
Part of her wondered if she was just ungrateful for extreme luck in life? The internet let her know well enough how truly blessed she was with her mistress. The girl shook the thought from her head and went back to working on the dress she was currently constructing. She hoped it turned out right this time or her mistress would not be pleased. This was the fourteenth time that she was redoing this particular garment and her fingers had started to bleed through the bandages. But, there was a deadline. She knew her mistress HAD to meet it. Failure wasn’t an option!   
  
The Great French Designer Justine Linda D'aramitz had never been late for a deadline in her  _ Entire Career.  _ _  
_   
‘ _ I am not going to let my age make me break a 48 year long streak girl!’  _ Kanaya mentally quoted the old woman. Justine’s designs had always been inspired, Kanaya could easily admit that. The woman was world renowned for her skill and originality. She’d taught Kanaya everything she knew about fashion and sewing.    
  
But the woman was getting old. She was now 71 years old now and had been given Kanaya when the troll was 10 years old. That had been 6 years before.    
  
Kanaya did all she could to help her Mistress. She cooked, cleaned, watered and tended all of the plants, put together the garments her mistress designed and anything else she was asked to do. There were only three things that Kanaya truly disliked about her life.    
  
1) The fact that she was never allowed to leave the apartment. Justine didn’t think it safe for Kanaya. Or for herself really.    
  
2) Her mistresses occasionally rather  _ shocking  _ punishments when things weren’t done to her satisfaction in a timely enough manner and…    
  
3) The woman's fairly severe, racist and opinionated nature.   
  
The girl’s bandaged green tinged fingertips went to the sleek silver colored metal collar that sat around her neck. She touched the green light that she knew was shining but unblinking. Justine hadn't stood for the original collar. It had been too thick, with the wrong color light and ‘ _ That horrendous red flashing has to go! It is an eye sore!’  _ The new collar did suit her much better. If only it didn’t administer such a high voltage…    
  
Her worrying and reminiscing was interrupted by the aforementioned old woman's angry yelling. 

  
“KANAYA, YOU HORRENDOUS  _ GRAY MONKEY _ ! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING IN THERE GIRL? AREN’T YOU FINISHED YET OR ARE YOU LOAFING ABOUT LIKE A FUCKING DEGENERATE  _ COON  _ AGAIN?!”    
  
The shouting made her jerk and once again her finger was grabbed by that needle. The old sewing machine really was temperamental. Kanaya almost cursed, before turning the wheel to get the needle up and putting the bleeding digit into her mouth. The words didn’t sting that much anymore, though she was rather glad no one was around to hear them.    
  
“I am just doing the last hem mistress. I’ll be finished in a few minutes!” She said, speaking loud enough she thought she could be heard but definitely NOT shouting back.    
  
“HURRY IT UP YOU STUPID GIRL. I CAN’T STAND SLACKERS! IF I DIDN’T KNOW BETTER I’D THINK YOU WERE TRYING TO DISAPPOINT ME. HOWEVER I AM FORCED TO ASSUME YOU’RE EITHER LAZY OR FUCKING UNGREATFUL”.    
  
“Of course mistress! I do apologize!” She replied in her calmest, loud speech once again.    
  
For a moment she worried her mistress was going to come into her room as she could hear the woman move closer to it. Then, however she pulled away and nothing more was said. Kanaya could hear Justine go back to the sunlit living room.    
  
Kanaya looked at the time. It was right about the time that lunch should have been on the table. Her heart was pounding in her chest as guilt built up. No wonder her mistress was getting cross with her, she was making her wait to eat. She swallowed a yawn and tried to clear her head so she could finish and start lunch. Being substandard wasn’t an option to Justine. Being up all night was still hard on Kanaya however.    
  
Nevertheless, she worked to finish and pulled the gown back to look it over. It looked perfect to her and she quickly put it on, before going out.    
  
One thing Justine did appreciate about Kanaya were her proportions. It made her a good model apparently, though her coloring was  _ ‘atrocious’ _ .    
  
“Mistress? I’ve finished”. She said, before going out to the livingroom to show her.    
  
The old woman was sitting regally on the floral patterned couch and looked over Kanaya with a sharp, careful appraising look. Then she motioned her closer. Kanaya went of course.    
  
A pinch there and a pull here made Kanaya winch slightly as the gown was adjusted to Justine’s satisfaction.    
  
“Hmm… It will have to do. Those fucking  _ Chinks  _ bastards BETTER understand what I am going for or I’ll HAVE them!” The racist words slid over the woman's tongue and Kanaya just nodded and smiled. She’d heard far worse, though she did wish her mistress didn’t appear to hate everybody.    
  
“Of course mistress. I’ll go and hang it with the others before starting lunch. What would you like today?” She asked, smiling a false practiced soft smile at the woman. Inside Kanaya’s heart was still beating rather fast. ‘ _ This mood will pass. It’ll pass and I am fine’.  _ She assured herself.    
  
Justine was quiet for several minutes. “I suppose Boudin Noir Aux Pommes sounds promising and quick enough. Though really girl, you’ve been most inconsiderate. After all I do for you, taking your sweet time with something SO IMPORTANT!”    
  
“Of course. Boudin Noir Aux Pommes it is. Again, I am so sorry for the delay. It won’t happen again”. Kanaya promised with a bow.    
  
“Pfft. Of course it will you idiotic thing. You can’t help letting me down. I dare say it is my own fault for having any real expectations of you or your kind”. The woman waved her hand dismissively, a sour look on her face as she stared out the window.    
  
That Kanaya didn’t reply to. She just rose up from her bow and went back to her room. Her smile dropped as soon as her head was turned away.  _ ‘It’s fine. I am fine. She’ll be in a better mood once I get some food in her’.  _ The Jade girl told herself. She quickly redressed and went out to make lunch.    
  
Kanaya was setting the food onto the dining room table when her mistress spoke again.    
  
“They still haven’t called me! Probably won’t call me until they need something. Pathetic lots the BOTH OF THEM! After all I’ve done for them!” There was pain in her voice as she started to mutter in french under her breath.    
  
Kanaya knew Justine was speaking of her children. Only her son ever called and, yes, it was when he needed something. In the six years she’d lived with her mistress, the woman's daughter had never called. Not even once. Justine had called her many times, mostly to rant at her for marrying an African American man, though Justine didn’t call him that. The designer's own husband had left her after having a string of affairs with men, or so Kanaya had been told.    
  
This wasn’t a new complaint of the woman’s. She was lonely. No one seemed to like her except Kanaya herself and Kanaya did truly love her mistress. Even if she could be cruel and mean at times. Justina took good care of her truly.    
  
“Mistress, your lunch is ready”.    
  
The designer stopped her mummering, and looked up. “Oh. Hmm.” She came over and took a seat examining the food before nodding and turning to look at Kanaya expectantly.    
  
“Well, what are you waiting for? Join me. You can’t tell me you’re not hungry. I know you are Kanaya”. She said, waving her hand at the other chair.    
  
Kanaya smiled and bowed her head again, happy her mistress had invited her. Presumming was never good. “Of course mistress. Thank you for having me”.    
  
Those words caused a truly fond smile to appear on the old woman's face and she patted Kanaya’s arm. “Of course my lovely girl”.    
  
The Jade girl felt her heart calm down and her smile turned real. It seemed her mistress had calmed down again. The mood had passed. She served herself and sat with the other and they ate in a comfortable silence.    
  
A coughing fit made her get up and get the woman some water. Kanaya smiled another fake smile to hide her fear. Justina had been coughing a lot lately and she’d slowed. The woman refused to go see her doctor, not thinking that the Indian woman was competent but she also refused to change hospitals.  _ “I’ve used that one since I moved here. I’ll not change just because they chose to hire and incompitant Curry-Muncher” _ .    
  
Kanaya didn’t know what she’d do when Justine died. The idea terrified her more than the worst shock that collar could provide.    
  
Her hand moved over to touch her mistress's own hand gently. “What would you like to do next mistress?” The smile was real again.    
  
If she held on and took good enough care of her…    
  
Maybe Justine wouldn’t leave her for a long, long time yet. 


	9. House Drama

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> House hold drama. 
> 
> Karkat gets a Stark Pad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAD TO FORMAT THIS SHIT BY HAND! PESTERLOGS RUIN THE RICH TEXT!
> 
> Dude. Doing the < > < / > stuff was so annoying. 
> 
> I hope you all like it. I slept 5 hours in the last 24 hours. If you see mistakes please let me know. 
> 
> Special thanks to rebelredfoxcassidy who made me really happy.

**-Enter: Karkat, Wednesday 6:45 am-**  
  


Karkat was sitting under the table, glaring at the door. His knees were pulled up to his chest and his fingers were digging into his still naked legs when the door opened. 

There was a brown haired human standing there, holding what looked like some clothes and a cup with a green straw that smelled like FOOD. Karkat felt his stomach growl and his eyes zeroed in on the cup. He still didn’t move however. 

“Hey… kiddo. Uh… my name is Bruce Banner umm… Here”. The man moved a little closer and Karkat almost hissed, but the man stopped around 6 feet away from his hiding place. “This is a protein shake and these are a temporary change of clothes and a Stark Pad. I…” Whatever he was planning to say, the human must have thought better of it as he set the things down. “You’ll be getting some other clothes later. These… won’t fit well”. 

Bruce then backed away, several feet. Karkat couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t ignore food. Fear couldn’t even make him do that. He reached out and grabbed the cup, before removing the lid and the straw. He used his pointed red tongue to suck off all the shake from the two items, before tossing them aside and starting to drink. His mouth wasn’t sealed shut anymore and he’d be fucking damned if he used a straw again. The idea made his mouth hurt.

The shake was good. Really, REALLY FUCKING GOOD! Karkat’s yellow eyes never left the human’s form, though he didn’t meet Bruce’s eyes as he guzzled it. 

“Umm… What is your name?” Bruce asked, crouching down a little so he could look at Karkat’s face. The troll held his cup protectively. This was his. The human wasn’t getting it back and he couldn’t stop the hiss that left his lips, or the flash of his white, pointed teeth. 

“...Why the mother fuck, do YOU wanna know?” That wasn’t a smart response, logically Karkat knew that, but the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. _“I have no fucking brain. It’s gotta be empty in my head. 100% empty. FUCK”_. As soon as he realised what he’d said, Karkat pulled himself tighter and stopped his drinking, waiting to see how he’d be punished. 

The man gave him a strange look, before sighing and taking a seat. “Because I don’t want to call you ‘troll’ or ‘Red’ or something like that. Please, what’s your name kiddo?” 

The tone of his voice was forgiving and soft and it made Karkat’s skin crawl with nerves. _“What in the mind-melting, bulge busting fuck is he playing at?”_ The boy’s eyes actually went to the man’s and Karkat paused, searching his face, before looking away. “... I…” Part of him actually wanted to trust the human. Something in him said the man looked kind, but all of his instincts were screaming at him to not fall for whatever game this was. “Call me whatever the fuck you want”. He was tense as a statue. _“I can’t let them win this early. Don’t play me for a panrotted fool. Fuck. I DON’T LIKE GAMES. SHOW YOUR TRUE FACE!”_ Humans always had a true face and it wasn’t ever pretty. 

The man sighed and leaned his back against the wall. But he didn’t leave. “Alright Red. You don’t have to tell me yet. Are you in any pain?” Bruce asked, still looking at him. 

Karkat growled again, before he finished that shake, licking inside the cup and using his fingers to get what his tongue couldn’t. He wasn’t going to dignify that with a response. Of course he was in fucking pain. Not as much as the day before, but still, he hurt. Was this Bruce human retarded or just sadistic? _“Does this fucker want to hear me describe my literal pain like I’m a patient on some sort of shitty fucking daytime medical soap opera?”_

The man sighed yet again and shook his head, but he smiled still. “I swear, I am a doctor…” Karkat gave him a look that showed confusion. Why the fuck would he see a doctor? He wasn’t a human. 

“Err… A veterinarian”. There was a winch on the human's face as he said that. He must have noticed the look on the Karkat’s face. 

The boy touched his own face as he thought about that. He never could hide anything. However, Karkat had never actually had a bad experience with veterinarian’s. They were the one type of fucking human that was alright. They gave him meds, cleaned up his cuts and set his bones back into place. Sometimes they even got him a few days off so he could be used more without it killing him. Vet’s made trolls healthy. Was that what was happening here? _“My master wants me healthy before he uses me?”_ The boy had noticed that the room he was in was very nice. During the night he’d searched around and drank some water from the bathroom tap. 

“... My name is Karkat”. He wouldn’t answer the pain question, because he was fine. Or rather, it was pointless and he didn’t think there was anything a vet could do about his fucking bruises. He already had stitched him up and fed him. 

“Karkat? That’s a nice name. I like it…” Bruce said, before smiling wider. Karkat could see that he was nervous. He didn’t believe him though. Karkat was a stupid name for an idiotic troll. _“Karkat. Definition: A retarded ass with a limp posture pole and a figurative shit load of pan damage”._

“Well… I’ll see you later Karkat. Tony… your master… He wants me to make sure you’re OK”. Again there was a look on the humans face, a winch that if Karkat didn’t know better would make him think that the man regretted saying that. Almost like pain. But… what part of that would he regret saying? Did his master… want to kill him after fixing him up?!

The red blood didn’t say anything when Bruce left. He heard the click of the lock. Only then did he reach out and take the clothes and the tablet. Karkat would worry about it later. Vet’s were weird. Getting out from underneath that desk hurt, but Karkat was more than used to pain. He looked over the grey sweatpants, before pulling them on. They were far too long and definitely too baggy. But he tied the string and rolled up the legs. He then put on the large black t-shirt. He swam in it, but… the clothes made him feel a strange sort of warmth and he carefully sat back on the bed, after picking up the Stark Pad. 

Karkat didn’t believe it as he pressed the center button and it unlocked. _“This has to be a joke. He doesn’t even know me yet. How rich is this pitch haired bastard?”_ A weird fluttering had built up in his chest and he immediately went to the search engine. When it connected immediately to the Google search page he was really confused. But, he typed in a random word. Just “asjf”. 

There were 102,000 results and Karkat almost dropped the device. 

_“I… OH MY FUCKING GOD!”_ He started to hyperventilate, not believing what he was seeing. _“This can’t be fucking real. I am delusional. I’ve lost it. Fucking cracked like a chicken egg on a white tile floor!”_ This had to be a fucking dream. _“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? HOW THE FUCK?!”_

Those gray tinged fingers started to twitch as Karkat typed in an old web address. 

PesterChum.com. 

The site came up, looking just how it always had. Red tears filled those yellow eyes as Karkat literally shook so hard he had to re-long in twice as he entered his info for his old account. He heard the ding, and then he was in…

carcinoGeneticist [CG] began pestering  twinArmageddons [TG]

CG: HEY SOLLUX, GUESS WHAT? I GOT A FUCKING IPAD.  
  
CG: ...SOLLUX... ARE YOU DEAF NOW? ANSWER ME. I WANNA TALK TO YOU.  
  
CG: ...  
  
CG: ...SOLLUX, COME THE FUCK ON MAN. HOW LONG DO YOUR GAMES LAST? CHECK YOUR PAD.  
  
CG: HEY BULGE BREATH, IT’S BEEN 37 FUCKING MINUTES! HEAR THE FUCKING PING. YOU KNOW, THE SOUND THAT GOES 'EEM-BING'? YEAH, THAT SOUND. HEAR IT WITH YOUR USELESS SOUND HOLES. THEY ARE ON EITHER SIDE OF YOUR EMPTY PISS TINTED THINK PAN.  
  
CG: I KNOW YOU HAVE YOUR PAD. STOP TRYING TO PULL ONE OVER ME. IT’S NOT FUNNY YOU GAME ADDICTED BIPOLAR FUCKTARD. THIS ISN'T A JOKE. I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG I HAVE THIS FUCKING PAD FOR.  
  
CG: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING SHIT FOR BRAINS? ANSWER MY FUCKING ATTEMPT TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU, YOU MENTALLY FRIED FUCKING WASTE OF OXYGEN!  
  
CG: ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME WORRY ABOUT YOU OR ARE YOU HONESTLY BUSY?  
  
CG: SOLLUX!!  
  
CG: WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME?! WHAT THE HELL. PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF WHATEVER MOOD YOU’VE FOUND YOURSELF IN AND ANSWER THIS PESTER. I WON’T WAIT ALL DAY! I DON’T THINK I HAVE IT PISS HEAD!  
  
CG:THERE IS NO WAY YOU HAVEN’T CHECKED YOUR GOD DAMNED FUCKING TABLET BY NOW. IT’S BEEN THREE FUCKING HOURS. ANSWER ME. LET ME KNOW YOU’RE NOT FUCKING DEAD YOU TWO FACED FUCKER!  
  
CG: FUCK FACE. LOG ON!  
  
CG: I DO NOT THINK YOU APPRECIATE THE GRAVITY OF MY DECISION TO WAIT ON YOU WHEN THERE ARE A MILLION OTHER BETTER THINGS I COULD BE DOING COCK BREATH! I DON'T KNOW WHY I CHOSE YOU TO BE THE FIRST FUCKFACE ASSHOLE WHORE I CHOSE TO GRACE WITH MY NEWFOUND INTERNET ACCESS. MAYBE I THOUGHT YOU’D BE HAPPY I WAS ALIVE OR SOMETHING. BUT NO. I BET YOU’RE FUCKING IGNORING ME SO YOU CAN PLAY HALO OR SOMETHING JUST AS RETARDED. HOW MANY FUCKING PEOPLE DO YOU PESTER? NONE. THAT’S WHO. I FOUND THIS FUCKING SITE. CHECK YOUR PAD! DON’T THINK I’LL BE WAITING FOR YOU FOREVER! EVEN IF I CAN!  
  
CG: YOU KNOW WHAT? YOU CAN GO JUMP OFF A SHORT FUCKING PLANK ONTO A GIGANTIC PISS COLORED DICK. IT’LL SUIT YOU. FUCK, WHICH ONE IS SOLLUX? HUNH. NO ONE CAN TELL!  
  
CG: I FUCKING HATE YOU, YOU FUCKING BASTARD. I COULD BE LOOKING UP HOW TO DOMINATE THESE FUCKING DISGUSTING SOFT SKINNED EARTH TONED BEASTS THAT CALL THEMSELVES THE SUPERIOR RACE OR I COULD BE RESEARCHING HOW TO PUT AN END TO MY COMICAL CHARADE OF AN EXISTENCE.  
  
CG: ... SOL?  
  
CG: YOU BETTER NOT BE DEAD MOTHER FUCKER! I DID WHAT YOU SAID. YOU DON’T GET TO DIE!  
  
CG: ANSWER ME! PLEASE FUCKING ANSWER ME! I'M SORRY FOR WHAT I SAID. JUST ANSWER ME. YOU'RE NOT A FUCKER. I'M THE FUCKER! YOU’RE MY BEST FUCKING FRIEND! I’LL WAIT AS LONG AS I FUCKING CAN FOR YOU!  
  
CG: ...  
  
CG: SOLLUX! PLEASE I  
  


carcinoGeneticist [CG] ceased pestering  twinArmageddons [TG]

Karkat would have typed more. It had been… 5 and a half hours but it wasn’t like he actually had anyone else he could think of pestering. The red blood didn’t want to talk to anyone other than Sollux, even though he had a few other online friends from when he was younger. _“They must think I’m dead…”_ It didn’t matter. They weren’t Sollux. Tears were streaming down his face and he hadn’t even noticed. 

He’d have waited all day, but the door had opened and Karkat had panicked, pressed enter and then closed the Stark Pad. It’d logged him out. Once closed he’d held it close to his chest, protectively. If the humans wanted to take it… they… they’d have to FUCKING MAKE HIM Karkat decied. 

It was the Bruce human again. Karkat would have hissed, but… he had food. He DID get the FUCK OFF THAT BED and backed up, until he was under the desk again. _“Why the hell did I ever go on that fucking bed?! I am a stupid fucking whore. What IS THE HUMAN GONNA THINK? FUCK…gonna think I wanna be fucked and… maybe I do.”_ Karkat was pretty sure that he hated humans more than it was mentally healthy to hate them, but he could feel his body starting to react to his thoughts. 

He was too good at getting the multicolored mammals to hate him. Seriously, humans' hides didn’t match their red blood. Not normally at least… It creeped him out, though he could admit their bulges were small and they were warm. _“Fuck my life. I have to want it”._ Karkat hated his body, even as it ached. Pain didn’t stop him from reacting. _“No, No. Fuck. No. Vet’s… vet’s don’t do that. Never… been fucked by a vet”._ He ignored the voice that said _“maybe he’s not a vet”_ because someone had to fucking SEW HIM UP! 

Bruce was moving and Karkat was drawn from his thoughts. He thought too much, he knew that. Must be because he was usually alone with his thoughts most of the time. It wasn’t like people spoke to him. More at him. 

The shake was put onto the ground, again around 6 feet away. “Hey Karkat. Are you alright kiddo?” Bruce asked, before he went to sit again, being nice and slow and calm. Karkat realised something then and there. 

Karkat didn’t reply. His eyes were wide. _“Oh fuckkkkk… he is trying to tame me. Fuck my life. Do I look like a dog”?_

The human was gonna sit there and chat at each meal. Karkat knew it. The red blood just wanted to be left alone, at least until he healed. Well, that and to have Sollux reply to him. Actually, he’d settle for Sollux replying. 

Karkat groaned, but grabbed the food quickly and noticed that there was no lid or straw this time. He actually wasn’t that hungry, but he wasn’t going to ignore food… 

**-Enter: Tony, 12:37 pm-**  
  


Oh god. Tony’s head hurt. It was as if he’d been in an accident, though he knew that he hadn’t been. No, this was a hangover. A bad hangover. The king of hangovers! The… the… Tony couldn’t think of a pun involving Iron Man or Hero’s involving hangovers. God damn his head hurt. “Fuck it”. 

The man sat up and reached to his side table for medication that should be in his drawer. His hand tapped a glass and he looked over to see the pills already laid out next to some water. He took them without complaint, before standing to go and wash his face and shower. Showering might help with the pain until the meds kicked in. Drunk him left meds. 

It wasn’t until he was naked and in the shower that his brown bottle of body wash reminded him of what had happened the day before. “Wait. Drunk me is even more of an ass then sober me”. His eyes went wide.

The shower didn’t do anything against the acute nausea that built up in the flaxen haired man's gut. It also didn’t stop him from throwing up stomach acid. “Fuck… FUCK!” He punched the tile wall, ignoring it as his hand burned afterwards. Those kids. ALL OF THOSE KIDS. The red blood from his own split knuckles made him sick all over again. This whole situation was bat shit crazy. 

His head hurt too much for this. But, he was going to have to get over it. Or at least he told himself that. Tony knew he was a narcissist, but… fuck this situation was messed up. 

Tony finished washing himself off and got dressed. He didn’t bother to fix or style his hair. He thought he looked good. 

Instead he just made sure to put on shoes and his sunglasses, before going out to face the music. By music he meant Bruce and… maybe Pepper. 

“Hey Jarvis? Who’s here?” He asked his AI as he stretched a little and walked out. 

“Master Banner, Eridan, Tavros, and Karkat, sir”. The AI said. 

Tony paused, something sounded strange about that and he grabbed his head. 

“Wait… Karkat?” Was that the red blood's name? “He’s awake?” He asked, shaking his head. 

“Yes sir”. 

In the kitchen he saw Eridan, and Tavros sitting in the living room over the separating counter. The man immediately went to the coffee pot and poured himself some of the bitter black gold. He then walked behind the teenagers who were watching TV. It looked like something stupid. “Hey you two. What’s up?” Tony asked. 

Both teenagers jumped at his voice and turned. Then three things happened very fast. 

1) Tavros’s horn hit Eridan in the face. 

2) Eridan hissed and grabbed the other by his horns, pushing him down into the couch, sharp teeth showing. 

3) Tavros screamed and one hand covered his face, moving the other up to grab Eridan’s hand that was on his horn. 

Just as Eridan was raising his hand to add a fourth thing, Tony yelled. 

“HEY! YOU STOP THAT NOW!” Fuck! His own voice made the blood pound harder in his head. 

Eridan stopped, pulling back and letting the other go, even as he growled again. “He bruised my face!” The purple blooded boy said, quite loudly, looking pissed at Tavros. Tony noticed that Eridan wasn’t meeting his gaze. 

Tavros whimpered and dunked his head down, closing his eyes tightly and releasing and dropping his hands. “I’m… uh… I am sorry Master…”

Tony groaned as the boy said that word. Fuck that word. But before he could reply Eridan was speaking. 

“He doesn’t like to be called master **shit blood”**. Eridan was hissing again and sort of looming over the other boy. 

Tavros was cowering away again, bringing his hands up in a gesture that could only be called defensive. “... You uhh…you gonna try and… uhh fight me… gr-grape head?” He asked, trying to appear strong. His horns went down a little. The words were sort of ironic when Tony factored in his tone. 

But… Tony walked over and grabbed both of them by their horns and pulled them apart. “I said STOP. Don’t fucking HURT EACH OTHER! MY HANGOVERS TOO BAD FOR THIS SHIT” He said, before releasing them and waving his hand between the two. “Move OVER!”. 

Eridan looked ashamed and like he’d been snapped out of something and Tavros looked nervous and scared. He got off the couch and went down to the floor. Tony groaned again. It was too early for this shit. He sat in the middle of the couch. 

The man looked at his watch. OK, it was too early for HIM for this shit. 

“Tavros get back up here, don’t call me master and be careful of your horns”. He then turned to Eridan. 

“Eridan, don’t call people ‘shit bloods’, don’t punch people in the face and let me see your face”. Tony reached out and grabbed the purple blood's face, noticing that the boy tensed up. There really was a bruise forming. Bruce was gonna be pissed. Fuck his life! “Dammit. Tavr-” He then remembered the boy's limp. “Fuck. Eridan, ice packs are in the freezer. Use one… please”. He took another sip of his coffee. “Oh… and get me the bottle of whisky from the counter”. That inner voice was trying to talk to him again. He was good at ignoring it however. 

Eridan nodded, glaring a bit more at the other boy. He moved though to do as he was told. 

“I…Umm… I am sorry m-t-... I am… I umm… am sorry Tony”. 

The billionaire noticed the shame and fear in those yellow and black eyes. “It’s fine Tavros. I shouldn’t have startled you both”. He said, knowing that that was gonna be a learning curve, but if anyone could appreciate not wanting to be startled, it was Tony FUCKING Stark. The voice calmed a little. 

Eridan came back and actually poured a shot of whisky into Tony’s coffee. It looked like a perfect shot too. “Hey, you’re pretty good at that… leave the bottle”. He smiled at the boy. “Wait… you have gills?!” 

Eridan flushed bright violet. 

“Add another shot and tell me… can you breath under water?” 

**-Enter: Bruce, 12:47 pm-**  
  


“You’re not drinking already. Are you Tony?!” Bruce said, seeing Eridan pouring whisky into the other man's cup. 

Tony didn’t even have the shame to look sheepish. Instead he just shrugged and grabbed that whisky bottle from the teenagers fingers. Protective of it. 

Bruce then noticed that Eridan had an icepack on his face and he actually cursed. “Damn it Tony! What the hell happened? I was gone for… 26 minutes!” He said, checking the time on his phone. He leveled his best ‘I am very disappointed in you’ glare at the trio. 

All three tried to talk at once and Bruce just raised his hand, rubbing his forehead. He was starting to get a stress headache and the other guy... 

“No. Nuh-uh. Eridan. You go first”. He went over and checked out the bruise as the kid spoke. It didn’t look that bad. Bruce would guess that it’d be gone in a few hours, a day tops. Trolls really did heal fast. He moved away, before taking a seat across from them. He was gonna take that whisky bottle from Tony in a minute. 

“M-Tony he came in and said… “ Eridan bit his lip, before starting again. “He greeted us and I turned to look and Tavvros he wwhacked me wwith his horn!” Eridan said, before hissing again at Tavros. Tony raised his hand and gently whacked the violet blood on the head. 

“No growling”. He said, pouring more whisky into his coffee. “I shouldn’t have startled them. My fault”. 

“Tony, don’t hit people in the head”. 

Bruce then looked at Tavros who looked ashamed and guilty. Bruce smiled at him, much like he had at Karkat. “It was an accident, right?” He asked, trying to calm the bronze boy. 

“Y-yeah. Umm… I should be… I will be… more careful. I uh. I promise”. He said, flushing a soft brown color as he looked down. It was really cute actually. His smile turned wider. 

Bruce knew that such large horns were usually removed, but… he wouldn’t mention that. It didn’t seem right, even if he had heard it was painless. Tavros hadn’t gored anyone. “It’s OK. I’m sure you’ll get it kiddo”. He said, before seeing his chance and reaching for that whisky bottle and snatching it away. 

“HEY!” Tony reached for it back, but missed. Bruce glared at him back. He could feel it as his eyes flashed green. 

Tony blanched. “... Fine. I’ll wait until later”. Tony said, before quickly downing the rest of his coffee before Bruce could take it too and standing up to go and get more. 

Bruce mentally groaned. He was too old to be dealing with **4** teenagers. 

“Hey, let’s watch something on the TV. Whoever guesses the number I am thinking of gets to go first. It’s between 0 and 4”. Bruce tried. 

Tony guessed the number. 

**-Enter: Pepper, 3:13 pm-**  
  


Pepper walked in to see Tavros, Eridan and Bruce watching the movie “Trolls” on the TV. She smiled and shook her head, before telling the two delivery men with her where they could put down the rather large quantities of items they had in their metal trollies. It was mostly clothes, though the painters would also be coming shortly. The furniture was going to be set up and delivered the next day. 

“This… it the stupidest showw I havve evver seen…” 

“Uh… That’s because… you. Uh… You have shit taste in TV…” Tavros said the words, even as he shied away from the other boy, swallowing hard. Pepper could see the fear in his eyes, but she said nothing. 

Bruce was sitting with them, between them actually. He said nothing either. It was then that the red haired woman noticed the twitch of a smile that was on Eridan’s lips. 

“I havve shit taste? Says the person wwho chose this? I chose True Blood. Noww that wwas a good movvie!” 

Bruce looked very, very tired. 

“Hey you guys. How are you doing?” Pepper asked, walking over. 

Eridan looked over, Bruce leaned his head away from Tavros and the brown troll cocked his head slightly to the side. 

“Miss Potts! Howw are you today?” Eridan said, standing up and flushing bright purple. Or was it violet? She wasn’t sure of the specific classification of blood color that the boy had. 

Pepper chuckled and patted the boy on the shoulder tenderly. He was a sweet little thing. Even if she suspected he might be ‘into’ her. 

“I am doing very well. Thanks for asking”. She then noticed the bruise. “Oh, what happened to your face?” She asked, reached out to touch the troll's face carefully. Pepper hadn’t noticed before just how cool Eridan’s skin truly was to the touch. 

“Oh… Tavvros hi-” Bruce cleared his throat at that. “-accidentally hit me wwith his horn”. Eridan amended. 

Pepper looked between the two and then at Bruce. “I see. Maybe we should think about getting Tavros his own, personal chair, so that doesn’t happen again”. She said, helpfully. With horns that size it would be hard for the boy to avoid hitting others if they sat close to him. 

The brown blooded troll looked ashamed and hunched his shoulders, dunking his head down more. 

“Oh. Not like that Tavros. I just think you’d be more comfortable”. She said, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine it’s easy to remember that you have them all of the time. Especially when you get excited”. Her conversational and passification skills had been honed by years of being a CEO and dealing with Tony’s contacts. That man sure knew how to ROYALLY piss people off. 

“Oh… Umm… Ok… Thank you Mistress…” 

Pepper sighed, but left it for the moment. 

“Where is Tony?” 

“He’s in his work room” Bruce supplied.

“I see. Well, I am sure you have things to do Doctor Banner. I can wait with them for now”. Pepper said. 

“I am alright for the moment Pepper”. Bruce said, smiling. 

She spent the rest of the afternoon and evening helping them set up their rooms or buying some things for their rooms. Pepper once again had them help to set up things for the red blood. She didn’t think that Karkat was ready for that yet after hearing a bit about him from Bruce while they both prepared dinner. 


	10. Just another day in Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony get's hacked and realises a pattern. 
> 
> Bruce is conflicted about the medication his friend recommends. 
> 
> Pepper is less conflicted. 
> 
> Steve realises the horribly the obvious. 
> 
> A few more characters introduced/mentioned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **-I DID IT. IT'S LONGER THAN THE ORIGINAL AND 1/4TH THE CHAPTERS SO FAR!-** **  
> **
> 
> **Violence warnings for last POV. Also, implied underage. Read my tags.**
> 
> Alcohol abuse. 
> 
> Also, if I never have to copy and past < span >< br />  
>  < / span > again, it'll be too soon.

**-Enter: Tony, (still) Wednesday 3:35 pm-** **  
**

Tony was staring at his open screens in shock and horror. He’d tried everything. Every trace and every avenue. Every PROGRAM!  
  
  
“WHO THE FUCK HACKED ME? HOW?!”  
  
  
FuciaChum.com was **GONE** and so was any trace of his download of it, or of it ever having existed online.  
  
  
No matter where Tony looked, his own history, the backups of his backups, through Jarvis’s logs, even according to Google’s mainframe and every site he could access. It was as if it had never been at all but…  
  
  
Jarvis remembered the conversation and the orders to download it. The AI had the video feed and the command history. There was just no record of the order ever having been executed.  
  
  
Tony was still cursing as he gave up for the moment. He’d been at it for a while and found nothing. He did save all of the data. This wasn’t fucking over with!  
  
  
The dark haired man then went back to looking online. There had to be something, but even the few other sites that had seemed somewhat promising in regards to troll rights were gone. It was as if something had purged the entire internet of anything that spoke about trolls true intelligence or ability. The information saying they were as intelligent as a 5/6 year old was still there, buried a little, but searchable. There was also a good amount of “academic articles”.  
  
  
But as Tony scanned them, he noticed a disturbing trend. Even with all their advanced speech, math and graphs, no matter what the institution, none spoke of higher intelligence in trolls. It actually seemed quite common in the more exclaimed and scientific institutions articles to implicitly state they were  
**NOT**  
testing for or factoring in intelligence. He could find credible information about troll blood color, life spans, even psionics. But nothing nearly as reliable on their intelligence. The best acclaimed papers cited older papers and older studies, NOT new information.  
  
  
“Jarvis… Keep scanning to see if anything comes up or if anyone knows about a hacker of this scale.” Tony wasn’t holding his breath for easy information but it’d be a good challenge for him. He’d crack this and find out what the fuck was up.  
  
  
Tony went back to researching. Trying other avenues and ways to go about it. There had to be something if he just entered the words right.  
  
  
Around an hour later he still had nothing on the hacker, but he had found an interesting blog.  
_  
The Indigo Vet.  
_  
It spoke about lots of troll health tips and facts. The “vet” stated that they weren’t technically a veterinarian, but rather a hobbyist. However something about it had triggered Jarvis’s algorithm and Tony agreed. There was something about the way the author posted. It never explicitly stated that trolls were as intelligent as humans, but it came damn close.  
  
  
_  
“Trolls are sentient, emotional creatures who are capable of learning a wide variety of tasks and skills. It has been my experience that an education, or training, is rarely wasted on Troll kind. Trolls can be magnificent creatures. I will admit that they are predatory and they can be dangerous. However the same can be said of mankind. If they are treated kindly, they will respond in kind. I promise you.”_ _  
_  
_  
_  
That was from the bio of the author. Whoever that was though, Tony couldn’t see. There were no photos of the author on the website. The genius sighed and once again resorted to hacking. This time, after having to actually try for several minutes, he broke through the protective programs. This ‘vet’ had gone through a lot of trouble to hide themselves.  
  
  
“Massachusetts Institute of Technology hunh?” He shook his head. Tony could pin it to a general area, but not a specific computer. However, this time he was 100% sure that he’d be able to with time. “Jarvis, monitor this site and trace the location the next time the vet posts”. He said.  
  
  
Tony started to read the posts on the page. There were posts about general health, mental health, sexual health, the hemospectrum, blood ‘ _castes’_ and individual answers to questions. Tony noticed a distinct trend for the author to show preference for the cooler blood colors, though it was far from overt. There was also the occasional photograph of a faceless male troll. These photos were rare and normally showed things like hands, nails, neck or the like. They were never vulgar.  
  
  
The man poured himself some vodka from his secret stash and speculated.  
  
  


****-Enter: Pepper, 6:05 pm-** **  
  
  


Pepper was helping to heat up the food as the teens had been sent to shower in their own rooms before dinner. She could tell that Bruce wanted to talk about something and so she turned to him, expectantly. Pepper wasn’t one to wait around to be told information unless she had too. She’d waited for him to get back from feeding the Red blood his shake and that was all the time she was willing to waste.  
  
Bruce looked a little nervous under her gaze, but he rubbed his neck and peeked down the hallway, making sure that they were gone. “I spoke to my colleague. She suggested some medications for Karkat. I ordered them.But… Pepper. He’s bad. The boy’s barely tame and I think… I think he thinks I might do _things_ to him”.  
  
Pepper matched the winch the other let out at those words. Her hand gently went to the other's shoulder, giving him a comforting smile.  
  
“I don’t think he trusts humans period. I’m not even sure if he’s sane”. The look on Bruce's face said he was worried about something he wasn’t saying.  
  
“What do you think he’ll do? Did he attack you?” She asked, worried but trying to get more information out of the man. At his head shake she retraced the conversation in her head. She remembered what he’d said the last time they’d spoken the night before. “You are worried about medicating him.”  
  
Bruce sighed loudly and then nodded. “It would be without his consent. That kid’s had enough people violate him against his will and… I’d just be adding to it”. There was pain in his brown eyes. “I’d be _violating_ him. Just like he fears”.  
  
Pepper pursed her lips and took a deep breath, slowly letting it out. “Bruce, do you think he can function if he is not medicated? It won’t be right if he is locked away in a room for the rest of his life. That would just be a cage”. The woman had actually had a similar conversation with one of her friends about their child who had an emotional disorder. “Can he come out and socialise with the others once he’s medicated?”  
  
Bruce was silent for a few moments as he thought it over. He looked at Pepper before looking away, having a few false starts. Then he nodded, deciding. “I think so. I’d give him something for his anxiety and something to limit his strength. Both drugs are commonly used in trolls. I might add in an antidepressant and a sedative. I don’t think he has any psionic abilities. He’d have used them already. Apparently they are very rare in ‘Candy Red’ bloods.”  
  
“If they won’t harm him, it’s better to try and see what works so that he can have the best quality of life possible”. Pepper said encouragely, no longer smiling, but hopeful nonetheless. She took note of the troll's blood color classification.  
  
“Yeah”. Bruce did smile, a sad, weak smile as he shrugged. “My colleague said something similar on the phone. Dr. Crocker really is a brilliant scientist”.  
  
Pepper grabbed a plate of food, feeling tired. “I am going to check on Tony”.  
  
“Let me do it. I need to ask him something anyway”. Bruce said, smiling.  
  


****-Enter: Bruce, (still) Wednesday 6:26 pm-** **  
  


Bruce didn’t bother to knock. He simply opened the door.  
  
Seeing Tony at his desk, typing away, drinking from a vodka bottle was actually a little reassuring. At least the other man wasn’t passed out on the floor.  
  
“Hey, I come bearing food”. He held it up and walked over, before taking a seat next to him. “What did you find?” He asked, as Tony took the food from him and Bruce took the… empty vodka bottle. _“Damn it Tony. You’re going to kill yourself with this shit”_ . The Gamma scientist set the bottle down and looked at his friend's screen.  
  
“What do you want Bruce?” Tony asked, not bothering to look over. His voice was curt and he was typing with one hand even as he ate with the other. Bruce noticed that he wasn’t overly flushed, but he could still see the effects of the booze in his system.  
  
“I want to set up a lab here, just for the trolls and get some medications and testing equipment.” he started.  
  
“Fine. Just tell Jarvis what you need. You can have the open space on the floor below”. Tony was still typing. He muttered something about a hacker.  
  
Bruce cleared his throat and continued. “I’m going to need to medicate Karkat. He’s not tame and he’s mentally unstable”.  
  
That caused Tony to stop typing and he looked over at Bruce, studying his face. “Fine. But I want to revisit the issue once he gets settled”. He stated, his eyes hard. Bruce could tell that the other didn’t like the idea anymore then he did.  
  
Bruce nodded and started to get up when Tony spoke again.  
  
“Have you noticed that some fucker’s been purging the internet of information about trolls”. It was a statement with a good dose of anger.  
  
“What?” Bruce sat back down and looked at Tony’s screen. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Tony, he did. Tony wouldn’t have said it as fact if it wasn’t. It was just hard to swallow. “What happened?”  
  
Tony then told him about the hack and about what he’d found online or rather, what he hadn’t found online.  
  
The two were in deep, speculative conversation when Jarvis alerted them from above.  
  
“Sir’s. Mr. Rogers has arrived home. He says that he’ll meet you here after he has put his things away”.  
  
“Oh. Alright”. Tony said.  
  
Bruce nodded, before looking at the time. It was 11:32. He was very glad he’d fed Karkat before coming to see Tony.  
  


**-Enter: Steve, 11:49 pm-**  
  


Steve was tired and sore. He’d been on a long mission for the last week and a half. However, that didn’t matter at the moment. Once he’d arrived, he’d put his bag down and not bothered to change into his civilian clothes or shower. Jarvis had told him that Tony needed him. Or at least that is what had been implied. The blond trusted the AI and Tony, even if they had had their rough patches.  
  
He knocked on the lab doors and waited until they opened. He suspected that Jarvis had opened them. When he saw Bruce sitting next to the other man he smiled briefly, and walked over. He too took a seat, though he pulled the chair back so he could sit across from the two.  
  
“You asked me to come back?”  
  
It was Bruce who nodded and Steve was surprised.  
  
“I did yes. Tony bought some Trolls and… I think a situation is developing. Do you know anything about the species”? Bruce asked, looking at Steve with an intense gaze.   
  
Steve nodded, watching them. He’d only met one troll when he was a young man in the 30’s. His name had been Horuss and Steve had thought him a nice enough person, though they’d only spoken briefly when he’d helped Bucky with deliveries. “I met one back in Brooklyn. He was a pretty nice guy, named Horuss. He worked at The Daymond Hotel”.  
  
Tony was the one to speak that time, his tone sarcastic and a little slurred. “He _worked_ there? Tell me Captain Spangles. What do you think would have happened if he’d tried to _leave_ the hotel?” Steve could tell that Tony was drunk.  
  
However he had never really thought of that question though. Horuss had always just been there. “I suppose… he wouldn’t have been allowed to leave”. He said, getting a twisted feeling in his gut. That didn’t seem right though.  
  
“He was smart? Smarter than a 5 year old?” Tony asked, leaning back in his chair and waiting, looking like he already knew the answer.  
  
“Yeah. He didn’t act like a child at all. He was actually very articulate and polite”. His mind went back to the trolls kind blue filled yellow eyes. The man had been strong, extremely so, but also never appeared violent, unlike the attacks he’d read about in the paper.  
  
The billionaire gave a rueful smile. “If _you_ could see that he’s so smart, why do you think that people all over don’t _know that trolls are intelligent?_ ” He reached next to himself and pulled out another bottle of booze. Bruce tried to snatch it from him and Tony pushed him away, starting to drink it. He actually stood up to evade the other scientist.  
Steve didn’t know the answer to that. He briefly wondered if he should help Bruce.  
  
It had been obvious to him that Horuss was smart, but he’d never read anything about their intelligence or such in any books or papers. No one had really spoken about the species when he’d been young. “I… I don’t know. Now that you mention it I only ever really read about them attacking people or being in pet shows or being for sale…” He remembered an ad he’d seen in the paper for some trolls. They’d been far too expensive for him to even consider buying.  
  
“Exactly”. Tony said, handing over the bottle to Bruce.  
  
Steve noticed that Bruce was looking a little… green. He hoped that it’d be alright. Tony had been problematic ever since he and Pepper had broken up.  
  
“Some organization is purging the information. I don’t know how long they’ve been doing it. But… Hic… They’ve been… doing it for… a long ass time”. Tony swayed a little and shook his head, before sitting back down.

****-Enter: Sollux, Thursday 3:11 am-** **  
  


He felt like he was dreaming when he heard the sound coming from the other room. The sound of PesterChum’s dings. _“No. No it can’t be. I… can’t take that sound. Go to sleep. Don’t be delusional right now piss head”._

He heard it again. But it couldn’t be. He didn’t have any friends on there that would be awake at this hour and besides… John wasn’t talking to him at the moment anyways. They’d had a fight when Sollux couldn’t get on League for the upteenth time and didn’t have a good excuse why or rather _“didn’t have an excuse we could tell him”_. Only four “ _-NO! Three. FUCKING THREE”_ of his online friends _“you don’t have real friends”_ used PesterChum. John, Rose and Jade. But he didn’t talk to the girls much. 

Rose… she had gotten too close to, and yet so fucking far off, the mark. _“No one can ever help me…We don’t need help. We need to stop acting out”_ . He could still perfectly recall what she’d written over two months before. 

  
\-- twinArmageddons [TA] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] \--  
TT: Are you going to get online?  
TA: no, not iin the mood today.  
TT: What do you mean you are "not iin the mood"?  
TA: ii ju2t don't wanna play today ok? let'2 talk about 2omethiing el2e. not everyone ii2 ob2e22ed wiith that game liike you are.  
TT: I think you are lying to me. You're injured and you do not wish to admit it, otherwise you'd be ecstatic to play WoW with me. I know how much you like it.  
TA: fiine ro2e. yeah, ii am iinjured. you fuckiing caught me but iit'2 no biig deal. lay off me. ii ju2t 2lammed my hand iin a door acciidentally. iit'll heal. ii'll play wiith you next tiime.  
TT: I am tired of you lying to me Steven.  
TT: It is extremely obvious that you're in an abusive situation and I would really appreciate it if you would cease lying to me about it. I highly doubt that you get “sick” every other week or that you are simply “clumsy” and that is why you get injured so much. I also highly doubt that you are capable of playing speed dependent online games with heavy frame rates for hours at a time some days and other days you randomly vanish because your internet connection is “poor”. You are being abused! Please, talk to me so that I can help you. You're my friend and I care about you. I promise that there are people who can help you Steven!   
\-- twinArmageddons [TA] blocked tentacleTherapist [TT] \--

  
_  
“Can’t let her know what you are. Fuck. What… what will she think then?-You’re pathetic”._ He’d blocked her and wasn’t sure if he’d ever unblock her. John hadn’t brought it up but he’d been weird for a few days…  
  
  
Sollux still wished he could go and grab the iPad but it’d been taken from him because he’d acted like the “- _pan rotted fuck”_ he was. He didn’t know when he’d get it back. One of his masters, Mike, pulled him tighter to his chest and Sollux had to suppress a whimper of pain. His _everything_ hurt. It’d been stupid of him to piss of their older brother, Titus. _"I fucking caused it.”_  
  
  
The Gold blood couldn’t even tell himself he didn’t deserve the beating, because he was sure that he did. He’d known if he got caught, he’d be beat but… He’d been unable or unwilling or, just too _“fucking stupid”_ , to sit there and game while listening to Cronus sob in the back room. The kids sounds twisted something in his _“fried”_ pan and messed up all of his fucking feels. _“He’s so small. How can he be so fucking pitiful?”_

Sollux itched the inflamed injection site on his neck. The drug really hit hard when his system was empty.  
  
He’d waited until Titus was out and Mike and Jeff were busy playing Halo alone, before he’d grabbed _“-Nah, you stole it”_ a Slim Jim and _“snuck in like a coward-”_ went into that _“fucking terrifying”_ room. He’d told the kid to _“shut the fuck up-”_ be quiet, before feeding him. Told him that he couldn’t make a sound. Then Sollux had gently papped his face and shushed him for a few minutes, making sure to keep an ear out for the humans. _“Like Kk used to do for-SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU MUSTARD BASTARD. KARKAT WAS A STUPID FUCK! IF HE’D BEHAVED HE WOULDN'T HAVE ABANDONED US. IT’S HIS FAULT- I need him… It wasn’t his fault-YES. IT WAS”._  
  
When he’d left, he’d thought he’d been in the clear but when Titus had come home and went to his room… he’d fucking **Smelled it** . Like some sort of fucking dog…  
  
The 28 year old human hadn’t been pleased. No. He’d been **PISSED THE FUCK OFF** . There had been a moment where he was sure that Titus was gonna _“legitimately-deservedly-finally”_ kill him.  
  
Mike and Jeff had just stared in a resigned _“looked like they were in pain-Yeah right, no they didn’t”_ way as their eldest brother had grabbed him by the hair, pulled him over the back of the couch and dragged him into the hallway before forcing him to look in at Cronus…

The memories came despite his wishes. 

  
_The adult was standing over him, looking like a fucking mountain. Sollux was sure he was high. His pupils looked so fucking blown._

_“YOU TRYING TO FUCK ME YOU USELESS BITCH?! I’LL SHOW YOU, YOU UGLY FUCK!” Titus shook him hard, pulling at his hair, ripping some out, before he punched Sollux in the stomach and let go. He’d fallen back, into the doorframe, whacking his back against the wood. “I CAN FUCKING SMELL. YOU CAN’T OUTSMART ME YOU STUPID FUCKING ANIMAL!”_ _  
  
_ _  
_ _The man must have wanted Cronus to see it as he beat the shit out of him._ _  
_ _  
_ _Titus kicked him in the side with his steel toed combat boot, down to the floor. Then onto his back, then in his other side, stomach, his side again, between his fucking legs then he’d stomped on Sollux’s bulge for good measure. Sollux couldn’t do anything but protect his head as he choked out sobs and half swallowed screams._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _Cronus started to scream as well, begging the man to stop. But he couldn't get up from where Titus had him tied down to that mattress and he was ignored._

_Sol couldn’t help his sounds. It hurt so bad he couldn’t keep it in, even though he fucking knew he wasn’t allowed to scream. If the cops got called… he was fucking dead. Titus had promised him that years before when he’d still been a wiggler. “Get the cops to come and I’ll shoot you in the fucking HEAD”._

_He couldn’t even curl up thanks to how he was being kicked. He stayed on his back, looking up at the enraged man through his arms, waiting for the next blow._ _  
_ _  
_ _The human had then stepped on his left thigh with one boot, before kneeling down, letting his knee dig into Sollux’s bulge with all of his weight. 185 pounds of pissed off adult. Sollux’s screams had died in his chest, gargling in his throat. Titus wrapped a gloved hand around his neck and pressed, cutting off his ability to breathe. Sollux’s life flashed before his eyes. Titus then leaned down so their faces were almost touching. “Next time you fucking feed him without my say so, I’ll break your fucking_ **_bones_ ** _._ **_All_ ** _of the ones in your_ **_hands_ ** _and_ **_arms_ ** _. I won’t let you fucking set them neither. You’ll be_ **_ruined_ ** _. Won’t ever play a stupid fucking_ **_game again_ ** _or be able to cook, clean or_ **_fucking feed yourself_ ** _. Mike and Jeff won’t keep you just for your_ **_used up cunt._ ** _They’ll toss your ass out and you’ll end up_ **_dead_ ** _like that little red fucker is. He never could_ **_shut the fuck up_ ** _.”_

 _Titus then stood up, before kicking him again in the same side once more for good measure._ _  
_ _  
_ _Cronus had begun to sob hysterically as Titus had turned to him…_  
  
Titus beat the kid, then he’d revoked Sollus’s iPad and told him he wasn’t gonna get any fucking food until Titus fucking said so. 

It was really rare Titus beat him like that. Usually it was just a couple hits with his fists or getting tossed around some. Nothing too bad. 

Sollux’s ribs felt fractured where he was kicked three times on his left side.  
  
That’d happened the day before yesterday and it was getting hard for Sollux to think, much less do all of his chores and play games with Mike and Jeff. He still hadn’t been fed. Mike and Jeff weren’t suicidal and wouldn’t disobey Titus. _“Not this soon anyway. They love you though-No they don’t. No one loves me-they do”_ . They were pretty pissed at him too actually. It wasn’t their fault he got beat, but it was negatively impacting their lives. That concept had been drilled into his head a long time ago too. _“You can_ **_ONLY BLAME YOURSELF FOR YOUR OWN STUPIDITY”_ ** _._ **** Mike had told him if he ever pulled shit like that again: _“You’ll get a second beating from me Sollux”._  
  
The troll didn’t doubt it and he felt so fucking guilty and confused and hurt. Part of him was pissed at Titus and Mike and even Jeff, so fucking angry. But a larger part of him felt like a failure and an _“ungrateful, disobedient mutated fuck who deserves it”_ . His mind also kept going back to those words about Karkat. _“Please don’t be dead. I don’t want you to be dead-He’s better off dead though-No! Can’t live in a world without him-Wanna bet? We already_ _DO_ _”._  
  
Mike wasn’t as strong as his elder brother, but the 5 ft 10 inch 18 year old was 178 pounds and far stronger than Sollux. Jeff had just looked away at the threat. He was the same age as Sollux, but three inches shorter at 5 ft 3 and around ten pounds heavier at 113 pounds. This was mostly because Jeff couldn’t ever hold still, not because he was starved. The other boy shot around like a bee if he wasn’t gaming. His hits didn’t hurt too bad. “ _Rather be hit by him… He’s fucking weak- NO! Rather not be here. Fucking wish I had psionics so I could escap-blow them the fuck up.”_ Usually both were pretty damn nice, so long as Sol did what they said. They even got him treats and gave him the old iPad and shit.  
  
_Fuck this hurts. Why do we do this shit? Why do I gotta fucking piss them off? -You’re an ungrateful shit Sollux.”_ _  
_ His red and blue eyes looked at the open bedroom door, seeing the closed one where Titus was sleeping with Cronus. He hated himself/selves. The voices in his head were him. He knew it was just himself but…

  
“Ding! Ding!”  
  
  
That really did sound like PesterChum though… Who the fuck was blowing up his account? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am (still) a comment whore. 
> 
> You can't comment too often or too little words.


	11. Of Pesterlogs and other Miracles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat hears a ding.
> 
> Bruce follows through, despite his doubts. 
> 
> Steve helps.
> 
> Our other purple friend smokes a joint and has some thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you notice any mistakes, please let me know. 
> 
> No, I can not type for Gamzee well, I did my best. 
> 
> My vocabulary is also pretty lacking in comparison to Karkat and Sollux. Gonna blame their education, and mine I suppose.

**-Enter:Karkat, Thursday 9:45 am-** **  
**   


Karkat felt bone numbingly tired. He’d messaged Sollux until he passed out under that table. The Red blood was trying not to think how absolutely pathetic it was that he’d hated that kennel so much and now he was hiding underneath a table. Irony wasn’t lost on him, it was just fucking wasted. _“This causticity can go take a flying leap off of a short fucking plank… god damn I need new material”._   
  
Bruce had come in at 8 AM to give him another shake, waking him up. Karkat hadn’t spoken to him at all this time, too tired and not in the mood to be fucking tamed. He had hissed a lot though, even as he knew it wasn’t the smartest move. If he didn’t respond to this soft technique, he worried they might move on to more potent methods of domestication. An idea he really didn’t relish.   
  
The look on the vet’s face had made him uncomfortable. It was akin to pity and Karkat wasn’t sure why but it made him feel really defensive. His instincts were screaming at him to avoid any adult that looked at him like that. When Bruce left it had taken him a while to calm down again.   
  
The teenager was drifting off again, after stashing most of that shake underneath the bed. The last one had made him throwup in the shower. Not that he was gonna tell the humans that. No. _FUCK THEM_. He could over fucking eat if he wanted too. It was his choice right?! _“Of course it’s nit my fucking choice. But what they don’t know, they can’t stop. First time in my life I get enough food that I throw up. Gonna milk it until my stomach relents to the flawless logic that is-”_  
  
“Ding! Ding! Ding!”  
  
His eyes shot open and he dove so hard for that Stark Pad that he hit his head against the top of that desk. Karkat ignored the pain as he opened the device, shaking.   
  


twinArmageddons [TA] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG]  
TA: KARKAT, OMFG! ii2 iit really you???????  
TA: ii thought you were gone! how the hell are you me22agiing me?.  
TA: you're not a hacker riight? ii wiill end you iif you fuck wiith me on thii2!!!  
TA: waiit, that’2 2tupiid. don't an2wer that. ii am an iidiiot.  
TA: no one could iimiitate your fuckiing gutter mouth, thiick a2 honey 2elf deprecatiion, or your abiiliity two put your entiire fuckiing 2trut pod iin your 2quawk gaper other then your2 truly.  
TA: you’re not there are you? ii know iif you were there you’d be an2weriing me. there ii2 no way you could keep your fiinger2 away from the 2creen. you talk way two much for that. alway2 fucked you over iin the end. ii2 that what you diid thii2 tiime, fuckiing 2creamed both of your ma2ter2 ear2 off untiil they 2tarted two gu2h blood liike my target2 iin bullet2torm?  
TA: karkat?  
TA: fuck. ii can't have lo2t my one 2hot two talk two you becau2e ii pulled another buzz braiined fuckiing 2ceme wiithout thiinkiing iit though and got caught liike the load of ma2hed wiire2 ii am!  
TA: karkat! fuckiing god. ii can't take iit iif you me22aged me once and then never do iit agaiin. ii already fuckiing wanna diie.  
TA: 2hiit. gotta go help jeff. brb. me22age me when you read thii2.  
TA: fuckiing hell karkat! me22age me back.  
TA: that'd be my fuckiing luck. my one and only 2hot two fuckiing talk two you and ii fuck iit up. ii wiill pray two fuckiing troll jegu2! ii wiill never dii2obey agaiin! ju2t fuckiing have that iipad! ii wiill be the mo2t magnaniimou2 and 2ubmii22iive troll that ever graced thii2 green and blue ball of 2hiit!  
TA: an2wer me!  
CG: SOLLUX! CALM YOUR TITS! I CAN’T FULLY DESCRIBE HOW MUCH JOY SEEING THAT MASSIVE WALL OF UGLY ASS MUSTARD JUMBLED TYPING BRINGS ME. I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT... FUCK. I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT NOT REPLY TO ME BECAUSE I WAS BEING A PAN ROTTED BRAINED IDIOT. I TYPED LIKE A FUCKING DOUCHE BAG AND I SHOULD HAVE HELD MY BULL SHIT INSTEAD OF UNLOADING ON YOU.  
CG: I AM FUCKING SORRY I MISSED YOUR MESSAGES. BEEN WANTING TO TALK TO YOU FOR I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW MANY YEARS. TA: what were you bu2y wiith? ii told you miine. al2o, iit’2 been almo2t four year2. ii’ll look up the date2 and get back two you on that.  
TA: ... karkat, ii told you miine, 2piill. ii aiin’t gonna go off my handle and launch my2elf iinto the 2un liike 2ome 2warm of 2uiiciidal ugly a22 bee2.  
CG: FUCK IT. I’LL TELL YOU SO YOU’LL SHUT THE FUCK UP WITH ALL THAT STUPID ASS MANIC CRAP. I WAS WITH MY NEW MASTERS FUCKING VETERINARIAN. I’M FINE THOUGH, IT’S JUST A THING WITH THIS GUY. THEY ALREADY PATCHED ME UP. I DIDN'T HEAR THE DING. WAIT. WHAT THE HELL BULGE MUFFIN. YOU STARTED TO MESSAGE AT 6:30 AM DUDE! YOU ARE MANIC RIGHT NOW, AREN’T YOU? DID YOU EVEN SLEEP AT ALL?  
CG: HOW WERE YOU AWAKE? YOU’RE NEVER AWAKE BEFORE 10. NEITHER ARE THE PINK ASSHOLES.  
CG: ARE YOU ALRIGHT? FUCK, ARE YOU HURT? IF I AM BUGGING YOU WE CAN CHAT LATER.  
TA: ... ii am fiine kk. you don't need two worry about me.  
TA: why the hell were you 2eeiing a vet? you’re not fiine iif you’re 2eeiing a vet! what the hell happened! diid… your ma2ter hurt you bad? who own2 you now?  
CG: YOU'RE FINE? I'M NOT LYING TO YOU. I ALREADY GOT PATCHED THE FUCK UP. I AM AS FINE AS A PRIZE WINNING LUXURY POODLE BEFORE A BIG SHOW. I AM SO FINE, I’D BE APPRAISED AS THE FUCKING BEST IN A CONTEST OF 500 OTHER UGLY BASTARDS. IF YOU WANT ME TO BE STRAIGHT WITH YOU, YOU GOTTA RETURN THE FUCKING FAVOR! THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY IN ALL THE SEVEN RINGS OF TROLL HELL THAT YOU'RE OK. I LIVED IN THAT, FOR LACK OF A BETTER TERM, HOUSE SOLUX!. WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. WRONG!?  
TA: ii don't wanna FUCKIING TALK ABOUT IIT KK. ju2t, let me know how you are. nothiing'2 fuckiing changed here. that want you wanna know? ii am 2tiill a ma22iive fuck up who game2 untiil 4 and tiitu2 and miike and jeff are ju2t fuckiing biigger now. fuckiing tell me what’2 goiin on wiith you! that’2 all ii care about. fuckiing hell, plea2e kk.   
CG: FINE. I'LL TELL YOU. HOLD ON A MINUTE BECAUSE THIS IS GONNA BE A "WANLI CHANGCHENG" ESK, 5,000 KILOMETER SIZED WALL OF TEXT.   
  


Karkat did just that, typing away as he told Sollux what had happened, and how he’d gotten to where he was. He started with what had happened when Titus had taken him from the apartment, and straight through to the room he was in now. Karkat didn’t lie, but he left a lot of shit out.    
  
Speaking to Sol made all the bullshit in the world just melt away. He wished more than anything that he could see Sollux. Maybe they could video call?    
  
Sollux shot that idea down fast.    
TA: kk, for the love of god! ii've told you thii2 before, ii know iit wa2 year2 ago, but iit ii2 really fuckiing iimportant. don't 2end piicture2, don't 2ay anythiing 2elf iidentiifyiing over the iinternet. not iif you want u2 two 2tiill be able two contact each other. 

  
After that, they just chatted off and on. Sollux had to ‘brb’ several times and each time it made Karkat feel worried and… guilty. There was a good chance that Sollux was just bringing those bastards a drink or sweeping or some  _ other _ shit. But… there was also a chance that he was getting in trouble for spending too much time on that iPad. Karkat didn’t want to cause the other troll any extra pain. He knew Sollux wouldn’t tell him if he did. He also knew that soon Mike and Jeff would fully wake up and Sollux would have to leave. As much as the yellow bastard liked video games, Karkat knew that playing them wasn’t really a choice, but a requirement.    
  
Mike and Jeff didn’t lose and their team name never slipped out of the top 50, not on any game that had a public leaderboard. Sollux had to make sure of that.    
  


Around noon the door opened again and Karkat told Sollux that he was gonna ‘brb’. At the time, he didn’t know that was gonna turn out to be a lie.    
  


**-Enter:Bruce, Thursday 12:07 pm-**

  
Bruce smiled uncomfortably as he entered the room with another shake. This one was more liquid heavy then protein heavy. It also had some added vitamin powder. Mostly calcium, the various B vitamins, creatine, carnosine, D3 and DHA. There was also a lot of added iron. He’d done copious amounts of research before creating the supplement.    
  
“Hey Karkat. How are you? You having fun with your Stark Pad?” He asked, going and putting the shake down in the now prescribed place, before retreating and watching the kid again. He’d noticed Karkat hadn’t really eaten that morning when he’d brought breakfast, it worried him.    
  
The scientist wanted the red blood to have something in his stomach before he had to give him those shots he had in his right hand pocket. Outside, Steve was waiting for Jarvis to tell him if he had to enter the room to subdue the troll.    
  
Bruce was under no delusions. The troll wasn’t going to come quietly and he didn’t want to risk the boy ripping open any of his stitches or harming himself in any way. He also knew that finding the right dose of medications was going to be rather difficult. Inside the guilt was eating at him.    
  
He tried to focus on Dr. Crocker’s words. She’d promised him that the dose might be a bit high to start off, but that it wouldn’t hurt the boy. He’d just have to trust her expertise in the area of troll genetics and medications.    
  
“Karkat. I have to have a pretty serious conversation with you”. Bruce started, seeing the troll had stopped drinking his shake and was just glaring at him with half lidded eyes now. Bruce worried that the boy hadn’t slept much the night before. His fists clenched. The meds were necessary, he reminded himself.    
  
“Karkat. I know you’re stressed out and confused about this whole situation. I’d be too if I were you. Uh… I have some medication here that I think will help you handle all of this a little better”. That caused those formerly sleepy eyes to shoot open and Karkat hissed, pressing the shake underneath the bed.    
  
Bruce took a deep breath. “I’d really like it if you didn’t fight this. I’m not going to hurt you and the medication isn’t going to hurt you. It’s gonna help. I promise buddy.” Bruce stood up and reached into his pocket and pulled out the sedative first.    
  
“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!” Karkat screamed, before darting from beneath that desk. The kid shot for the other side of the room, his chest moving fast. He was starting to hyperventilate and he was baring his teeth, his only real weapon.    
  
“Jarvis. Please let Steve in”. Bruce said. He’d known telling the kid would most likely lead to this exact situation, however… he didn’t have it in him to lie and drug him.    
  
He could hear Steve behind him and didn’t have to glance back to know Steve looked as unhappy about this as he felt.    
  
“Hey. Karkat right? I really don’t want to have to hold you down. Maybe we can talk through this? Not out of the medication. But, like rational people?” Steve asked, as he slowly advanced towards the kid.    
  
Karkat just hissed more and backed into the corner. “NO. GO AWAY. DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME!” As Steve got closer, the troll swiped out with his clawless hands and Bruce shook his head.    
  
“Be careful of his hips and his head Steve”. Bruce knew his words were a little obvious as soon as he’d spoken them, but he was nervous.    
  
Steve just nodded. If he’d been Tony he’d have replied with some sarcastic bullshit. He was once again glad that he hadn’t had to resort to asking Tony to help him. Not only was Steve stronger, but much more calm.    
  
It was over in a flash.    
  
Steve lunged and grabbed the boy by his arm, before spinning him and grabbing the small troll in a standing basket hold restraint. He then used his legs to lock the trolls as Karkat kicked out. “Hey… hey. It’s OK.”   
  
Bruce didn’t waste any time. He pulled the cap off the needle as he walked over and grabbed Karkat’s head. He injected the drug, before grabbing the next one, then the next one, then the next.    
  
In total, he injected 5 medications and two vitamin shots into the screaming teenagers neck.    
  
By the time he finished, Karkat was no longer struggling. He instead went limp and just sort of stared into the distance.    
  
“Pick him up. I want him in the living room so I can monitor him for a few hours”.    
  
Bruce had known the sedative would, well, sedate the troll. But he hadn’t been told it would be quite so strong. It was unfortunately necessary to give the other drugs time to work without stressing Karkat even more.    
  
“Alright…” Steve had what Tony would call a ‘kicked puppy’ look on his face and Bruce doubted his own face looked much better.    
  


**-Enter:Gamzee, Thursday 5:53 pm-**

“You ever like, motherfucking think bout how they all up and get the colors to go and be all sticking like they be? Staying with pages like they married or joined or best friends or some shit?” The tall, shirtless troll asked, from where he was laying on a pile of random dirty clothes, blankets and pillows. Gamzee just wanted to make conversation and get Josh nice and high. Anything to keep his master from looking at the clock.   
  
“No. I don’t think about stuff like that you dweeb. I think about working in that lame ass mailroom and hot chicks and shit. I swear pot messes with your head dude”. Josh said, laughing at the other and passing him the joint. He was leaning against his bed, legs next to Gamzee. “You think about the weirdest shit dude”.   
  
The 22 year old human wasn’t particularly tall or fit. He had brown hair and brown eyes and he wasn’t that handsome. Josh also tended to only wear old hoodies and jeans and he had never been a good student or played sports. He was actually fairly below average in a lot of ways and plain as he could get, at least appearance wise. Mentally it was a different story.   
  
However, to Gamzee, his master was a mother fucking miracle in hundreds of different ways. He watched the humans face as Josh smiled and shook his head, taking the joint from those olive tanned pink fingers. _“That’s it. Stay distracted mother fucker.”_  
  
“Aw bro, this shit ain’t at all weird. It’s fucking fantastic. These things that are all up and able to be seen by you and me. It’s like the world is just up and filled with all the magic it can take and want’s a mother fucking bro to up and know it”. Gamzee said, wiggling his eyebrows as Josh snorted and shook his head.   
  
“Just be thinking at it . Something has to be seeing and painting all these miracles and magics and that artist wants all us brothers and sisters to be in enjoyment of all it’s got to bless”.   
  
“You’re a weird fucker Gam… A really weird fucker.” The human was smiling, but there was some tension in his eyes and it was building fast. _“Don’t do it. Come on. We’re almost in the clear. She ain’t that late”._ _  
__  
_ Josh took out and opened up his phone, biting his lip. “She hasn’t called yet. You think she’s OK? She’s late. Like… Fuck. She’s half an hour late. What if… what if something bad happened?” Josh’s hands started to twitch a little, before he suddenly shot up, dropping his phone. A look of worry and fear filling his face.   
  
Gamzee sighed. He’d hoped the pot would take away all that stress from his best brother, or at least make him not notice the time. But that wasn’t looking likely. Josh rarely did well with things he didn’t expect. Gamzee was running out of time.   
  
“Bro, she just all stuck up in her traffic or something. You just try and relax yourself, let me do you good. My job right? What you wanting to do?” He asked, holding out his hands in a placating way even as he stood up as well. His gray hand went for his master's shoulder.   
  
“No. NO! IT’S NOT ALRIGHT! If… If it was traffic, she’d have called. She’d have called and let me know. Fuck. It’s something bad. I know it is! I…” Josh had started to pace and he absently pulled at his own hair, staying a few feet away from the troll.   
  
Gamzee could see him start to spiral and rapidly go down hill. But she’d been late before. His side was starting to **_hurt_** all over again. Gamzee had seen it many times where the woman just forgot to call.   
  
“You… you hear that?” Josh asked, his head jerking to the side. The man ran towards the window, looking out at the street.   
  
Gamzee winched. _“God damn it bro!”_ He hadn’t heard shit. Nothing that wasn’t the normal sounds of the house and street and his hearing was far better then Josh’s. “Nah… motherfucker. There ain’t nothing there. Come here. Let’s do something. How about… we go and watch that show you like. The one bout all them pranks?” Again, his hand went for his master, only this time Gamzee actually bridged the divide and grabbed him. He was gonna **MAKE** the fucker calm down.   
  
“NO. DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME. I NEED TO LISTEN!” Josh wiggled and pulled himself away from the troll’s grip. As he did so his hoodie sleeves rode up and revealed those long since healed scars. Marks that Josh was starting to scratch at. _“I need to fucking cut those little bastards while my bro sleeps. They ain’t miracles, raining down all their bull shit up on my day. This started as a good ass day too”_.   
  
Josh was acting increasingly distressed.   
  
_“Awe hell. She’s gonna motherfucking snap on my ass”_. He again reached for Josh's arm and pulled. “Josh bro. You can’t be picking at that shit. Ain’t nothing gonna happen to mom. You just gotta up and all have the faith! Come here”. He pulled the human two him, wrapping the man in his arms.   
  
Josh had started to shake, but allowed himself to be held this time. The purple blood bit back a winch as Josh’s elbow brushed over the relatively fresh burn mark on his right side. He adjusted the human to his left without comment. _“Nah. I still got time. She ain’t here yet…”_  
  
“I can hear them Gamzee. I can fucking hear them mocking me. They’re gonna… gonna take her from me. Just… like he always said”. As he shook Gamzee shushed him and sat down on the bed, not letting go. “It’s all good Josh bro. Ain’t been long enough to up and get all fucking stressed and shit. Just let the sweet smoke do it’s good for you and work it’s magic”.   
  
He reached down for the fallen joint, glad that it hadn’t caught anything on fire or been stepped on. “I’d tell you if I heard any mother fuckers up and saying piss ass things bout that Class A lady”. He meant the part where he’d tell Josh if he started to hear the voices but not the part about her being a ‘Class A lady’.   
  
Gamzee actually didn’t hate her, but she wasn’t a nice person, not in Gamzee’s eyes. _“Still, the world works up strange ass trips. If not for her up and fucking this whole parenting thing I’d never be here”._ The troll liked to look on the bright side. Everything had a bright side.   
  
He relit the joint and held it to his master's lips, even as he pulled the other down with him so they were laying back, nestled in the bedding. It was easier to comfort his master when they were chilling and Gamzee couldn’t help but like being in piles of soft shit.   
  
Josh snorted. “She isn’t a lady Gam. But… fuck. Maybe I should call her”. He said, sounding a little more rational at least. The pot must be working.   
  
“Yeah. You do that bro. Take another toke first. It’s good shit”. Gamzee waited, until he did it and then took a ‘mock’ drag himself. He was already feeling calmer and didn’t care if Josh smoked it all. The strain didn’t do much for him other than calm his think pan down and his meds already did that pretty damn well. But from what he’d read, the CBD heavy strains were better for Josh so he’d made sure to text the dealer and request that type. Josh didn’t know he’d done that.   
  
Gamzee had learned the hard way that THC could make Josh think some real strange paranoid crap. It hadn’t been a fun time for anyone.   
  
Gamzee could still see some of the same stressed out signs he’d observed countless times before as Josh internally debated with himself. The troll did what his instincts told him too and he quietly shushed and papped the other’s face. Gamzee never needed to be ‘trained’ to calm a bro down.   
  
“Shush… She’s gonna be up and all fine. She ain’t gonna be twisted or nothing if you go calling her. She ain’t gonna up and leave you no time soon and I ain’t never gonna up and ditch you motherfucker. My life span got some real miracles in it…” This was a speech he’d given many times before. From what he’d read online, he should live to around 120 years old. That was longer than Josh would live and way longer than that “ _BITCH OF A MOTHER”_ of his would live. “I’ll be with you until the mother fucking end. Don’t you stress bout that”.   
  
Josh took a few more hits, finishing the joint, before reaching over the troll to where his phone lay on the floor. “Gonna call her”.   
  
As he reached Gamzee had to bite his tongue to suppress a cry as his master's body slid over that burn. He could feel the friction rub against it and tear off bits of skin.   
  
_“Fuck. He needs to be MOTHER FUCKING CAREFUL BEFORE I_ ** _FUCK HIM UP_** _”._ Gamzee swallowed hard and shook his head. He hated it when his thoughts would randomly get like that. He didn’t feel that way. _“No… I won’t never harm him or his mom. Josh ain’t thinking clear. That ain’t his fault”._  
  
A moment later Josh was once again laying next to him, phone by his ear. He smiled and relaxed against Gamzee’s chest as the call connected.   
  
“Mom… HEY! Why didn’t you call me? … Oh. … Nah. I forgive you. I just got worried. … Ok. See you in 20 minutes”. Josh hung up and laughed a little, looking sheepish. “She got stuck in traffic and lost track of time. How’d you know Gam?”   
  
Gamzee shrugged and laughed. “Ain’t nobody told me nothing, my brother. I just up and trusted in the powers that be. It’s mother fucking miracles”. He felt relief flood through him that had nothing to do with the pot or his meds.   
  
“... You OK?” Josh asked, a strange look on his face as he reached out, touching Gamzee’s cool cheek. His hand was warm and soft.   
  
“Yeah. I’m fine. Ain’t nothing wrong with me”. Gamzee said, wondering why Josh was suddenly worried about him now.   
  
“Gamzee… you’re crying bro…”  
  
The troll had no idea why that might be, but he reached up and touched his face, realising it was true.   
  
“Must be some other sort of mother fucking miricale bro”.   
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you guys more if you comment and let me know what you think, what you want, or that you're still reading it.


	12. Of Blues and Yellows and Purples.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Indigo Vet posts to his blog. 
> 
> Karkat and Tony have a miscommunication. 
> 
> Our third purple friend gets some news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warings**  
>  Mentioning of non-consenting medical procedures and their resulting long term applications. 
> 
> Suicidal idealizations. 
> 
> The other warnings you've come to expect.

**-Enter: Equius, Friday, 6:07 AM-** **  
  
**

“... You're lucky, I do not dismantle you”. Equius said to the small type 5 cleaning robot he was currently attempting to repair. It kept stalling after moving three or so feet. 

He’d been over the wiring multiple times and had checked and rechecked. So far, he genuinely couldn’t figure out where the issue lay. He was debating the merits of stripping out all of its ‘gut’s’ and starting over. His master wouldn’t be pleased if the device didn’t work when he came in later.    
  
Equius shivered a little as he grabbed a new tool. It was too cold in the lab, and he couldn’t seem to get used to it. He supposed it was warranted, however. His master knew best after all and didn’t want Equius to sweat all over everything. Humans in general had to know best, they were higher than him.  _ “You don’t really believe that. But you should” _ . 

Equius ignored that voice, it sounded like his master, but it wasn’t. It was just his own mind. He had to fix the bot before his master arrived. He’d woken up so incredibly early in order to make sure he finished. Well, that was actually a lie. 

He’d woken up so early, so he could bluntly and shamelessly disobey his master, and he felt a lot of guilt about it. Just not enough to ‘not’ do it. 

He checked the clock on the lab's far wall. 

  
It was almost time for the security guard to make his last rounds before his replacement came in at 7:30. He slipped a newly repaired old watch out of his pocket and made sure it displayed the correct time, before taking a steadying breath.    
  


For a moment he let himself indulge in his rather pathetic habit of imagining he was somewhere else. 

_ He was in a field, filled with grass and the sound of birds. In the distance there were horses galloping across the lush hills. If he sat down and stayed still, they might come closer. All he had to do w- _

He pulled himself out of his thoughts. Now wasn’t the time. 

  
Equius was hoping the old man would just take the repaired watch, hand over the cash, and not attempt to engage him in lewd behavior again. He really wasn’t in the mood.  _ “Not that you can be in the mood, can you Equius? Not ever” _ . Maybe the cold would work to his benefit in that regard, and he’d be left alone, this time at least… He sure hoped so. So far his luck had been poor on that front.    
  
As soon as the clock struck 6:10 he stood up and pulled the lockpick from his jeans pocket, and put the watch back inside it. The pick was a cool little device that overrode the chip reader in the door. He was actually quite proud of it. 

Though he did know if his master ever saw it or saw Equius out of his lab without permission… he’d get more than a beating. His hand subconsciously went to the thick metal collar around his neck. Something his master had designed without Equius’s help. He wished he knew what it looked like inside.  _ “Feeling rebellious? Would you really remove it? I don’t think so. You’re not that disobedient. Stop with your stupid fantasies boy”. _   
  
Equius opened the door and shook his thoughts from his head. It was going to be fine. The guard would take his watch and that’d be it. Besides, his master had to be teaching his Robotics classes until this afternoon. There was no chance of Dr. Martin coming back before then. He spent the mornings with his wife and children at his house.    
  
The blue blood waited, leaning against the door to that lab. The guard was late and it made him nervous. Equius hated people who didn’t perform their proper function in a timely manner. 

As the seconds ticked by he tensed up, feeling a thin sheen of sweat starting to collect on his neck. He used the watch to check the time. 6:16. His foot started to tap on the ground, and he practically growled. Equius almost wanted to go find the guard, but more than that, he wanted to go back into the lab. The longer he was out here, the more there was a chance that someone other than his target would see him. His fingers went to massage his tight jaw as he tried to ignore the panic building inside him. .    
  
Finally, the 56 year old human rounded the corner and smirked at him from down the hall. His next thoughts were actually in his own voice.  _ “If not for these drugs, I could crush that smile from your head old man. I wouldn’t ever do it. But I could”. _ His master's voice came back.  _ “Hahaha. Are you sure about that? You’re delusional. You don’t have the correct biochemical development.”  _   
  
“Equius, aren’t you looking fine this morning. Always a  _ pleasure _ to see you first thing in the morning”. The smirk turned into a lear and Equius almost shuddered.   
  
“The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Thompson. I have your watch”. He held it out, between his body and the guards, leaning away.    
  
The man took it and looked it over, fiddling with it, before pocketing it. “And I have your money. However, I was wondering if you wanted to double it?” The human moved closer to him, bringing up a hand to touch the wall behind Equius’s head.    
  
_ “Not even if you promised to quadruple it.” _ He didn’t say that however. “I have many things that I have to do before Dr. Martin returns. Not that I don’t appreciate that offer”. He’d have started to retreat if not for that arm.    
  
Thompson laughed and shook his head. “I know he’s got teaching until 11 boy. You can’t trick me so easily. I am smarter than you, little pet”. Equius wanted to hit him. He knew he wasn’t stupid, no matter if Humans were his social highers.    
  
“Be that as it may, the doctor may stop here to pick up his notes before he goes to his classroom”. He was really thinking about dunking underneath that arm and retreating back to the cold lab. He was also sweating more as his nerves rose.    
  
The guard responded by running a hand over Equius’s shoulder and chest. “Hmm… How about, we do it quickly and… I don’t tell your master you weren’t in the lab little pet? After I’ll give you the cash and some more watches you can fix for me”.    
  
_ “I could END YOU OLD MAN AND NO ONE WOULD EVEN KNOW!” _ He felt like he was going to be sick, and he had a strong urge to hiss that he held back. He should have known the guard would pull that ‘underhanded and shady’ tactic again.    
  
“How can I argue with that logic? Lead the way.” He forced out, glaring just a little. He pointed at the storage closet that was down the hall. He wished he could  _ bite _ him.  _ “What’s next, are you going to sprout wings and flutter around like a fairy?” _   
  
11 minutes passed.    
  
After it was over he was sore and sweaty and $40’s richer. On the bright side, Thompson had had it in all single dollar bills. That was great as the snack machines didn’t take bills larger than singles and, as such, neither did Equius.    
  
He went to the aforementioned snack machines and got three things of beef jerky, some Cheez Its and two bottles of milk. He ate and drank the items as quickly as he could, before tossing the trash into the can and going back.    
  
Once he was back in the lab he continued his work on that robot. After 20 or so minutes, he did ‘gut’ it and redo all of the wiring. His master never showed up at all. It took him 3 more hours to get it working.    
  
Around 2 pm, he opened his computer to check his blog,  _ TheIndigoVet _ . He had a few new questions and one caught his eye, making a pit form in his empty stomach.    
  
**_-Zazzy1991-_ ** _ What is the difference between a full neuter and a partial? I just got a troll an my mum keeps telling me to get it fixed but thier is 2 kinds. _ _  
_   
He almost ignored it. Not wanting to think about that question now or… ever really. But, if he could save someone else from that… it was his duty, wasn’t it?    
  
Equius had never researched that subject, even as he’d researched every other major procedure done to Troll Kind. Even  _ teeth filing _ . His tongue ran over his flat teeth and the scars that were still present in his mouth. Dental students shouldn’t be allowed to practice on people when they weren’t ready. His mouth still didn’t open all the way and it got sore fast with use.    
  
His fingers typed away at his keyboard, researching the subject and doing his best not to look at any of those photos. Some things were too vulgar for him to willingly subject himself too… unless he was ordered to, of course.    
  
The nausea rose in his stomach, the more he looked, and he found himself looking down his dirty white shirt at his torso. It wasn’t fair.  _ “Life isn’t fair. Why should it be? Those in power have all the say. It is the natural order of things. You are STRONG enough to know that”. _ He knew that this was true. He didn’t delude himself into believing falsehoods. There would always be those above and those below.  _ “As it should be. You are high in comparison to most other trolls. Someone is below you” _ .    
  
He started to write his answer.    
  
**_-TheRoyalVet- @Zazzy1991._ ** _ Dear Zazzy, I would be happy to answer your question. While the subject is not studied extensively as of yet, there are key differences between the two approaches you mentioned. _

_ On the purely physical surgical side a partial castration, also known as a Rursus Faciem, is the removal of the Bulge or the Troll's penetrating organ. A full castration, Rursus Totam, is the removal of the bulge, along with the seed sack, and the electrocauterization of several key nerve clusters along and inside of the nook or receptive opening. A reduction of the nook may also be performed. Though this has no veterinary terminology, it is similar to a vaginoplasty. _

_ On the physical side, a partial castration will stop the troll from being able to penetrate a potential sexual partner. It will also cause underdevelopment of the nook and has been shown to prolong puberty. Please note: Evidence shows that it does not stop aggression. (Only proper training and communication will). A full castration will stop puberty in its entirety. Female trolls will not grow large venom sacs, or breasts and will be more masculine in appearance. The spine may become more curved and there will be no sexual attraction present. Both sexes will not have the muscle definition of their peers and will be shorter than they would have been otherwise.  _

_ Side effects include a higher chance of many types of cancers, infections and diseases due to the scarring, as well as mood and physical ailments. There also can be lifelong sexual discomfort if someone later has sex with the troll. The long term mental effects are still unknown, however I can imagine they would not be conducive to a healthy individual. _

_ At this time I can not recommend a full castration and would strongly advise against a partial castration as well as all it does is cause unnecessary pain and discomfort. _

_ Pleased to be of help. _

_ The Indigo Vet. _

  
There were many times when Equius felt like a conglomerate of bad theories put to the test.    
  
He’d been neutered to test a theory. That theory had been that directly after pupation was the best time to neuter a troll. This was based on the logic that their bodies were on a healing cycle and that their hormones, causing violence, were still underdeveloped and mild.    
  
This theory had been proven false. A troll's body was not on a healing cycle after pupation. It was on a rest cycle and the procedure had caused an abnormal amount of scarring as a result.   
  
Equius had also still been aggressive, as proven by the time he’d bitten his master when he was eight and had his teeth filed as a result. He’d been sore and young and his master had been on top of him and it had  **hurt** . He’d just wanted the doctor to get off of him.    
  
It had worked at the time, but the cost hadn’t been worth it. At least the doctor who’d preformed his castration had been an actual veterinarian. The student his master had found to perform his dental procedure hadn’t even been sterile enough. The resulting infection had been what had damaged his jaw so badly. Not the actual filing.    
  
His master still had sex with him as well, though he no longer fought that. 

There were so many other theories that had been tested on him. Everything from ‘hair’ growth, to how far his tendons could bend.    
  
Dr. Martin had formerly tested medications on him, but that had stopped when Equius had demonstrated his usefulness in the field of robotics.    
  
It had started out small, as he learned from watching. But, once the skill had surfaced, his master had actually taught him and supplied Equius with books, papers and supplies.    
  
It was a careful dance. His master didn’t like failure almost as much as he didn’t like it when Equius made him feel stupid. Equius might have incredibly hard bones and thick skin. He might be able to heal extremely fast. But, a metal pipe was still harder than him.    
  
His eyes strayed to where it leaned against his master's desk. He didn’t let his gaze rest upon it for long however.    
  


**-Enter: Tony, Friday, 2:59 pm-** **  
**

**  
**  
“Sir, I have traced the signal of the _TheIndigoVet_.” Jarvis said.   
  
Tony blinked and smiled, pulling out his phone. He was sitting in the living room with Karkat, Tavros and Eridan. Bruce was setting up the medical bay and Pepper was making sure his company didn’t go down the toilet. God damn he loved that woman. Thinking about her still hurt him.   
  
“Eridan, go and grab me the whisky buddy”. He said, feeling the need. It wasn’t that he was shaking yet, the three shots from that morning had so far prevented that. No, it was just that he didn’t want to think about her.   
  
“OK Tony…” Eridan said, before standing up to go and get the whisky. He loved the kid, in a completely platonic way. His memory flashed to the first night he’d gotten Eridan, and he decided he wasn’t going to just have a shot or two. No, he was gonna drink, well, maybe not the full bottle, but a lot.   
  
He looked over at Karkat who was curled into a little ball next to him on the couch. The candy blood still hadn’t said more than two words all day, though he’d said them repetitively. It see,eed he was getting closer to actually talking. One of them had been ‘soul’ or something. The other had been ‘no’. TV was distracting him at least. Tony had noticed early on that the boy seemed to be more enamoured with the romantic scenes, so every third turn he put on something with romance.   
  
Eridan came back with the whisky and a shot glass. He poured it for Tony, repeating the action whenever Tony waved the cup at him.   
  
“Doctor Hank Martin hunh? Professor of Robotics at MIT.” He went through the man's profile and read a few works by him. It really didn’t read like the same person as the vet. He checked through the works of the others in the vicinity, but none of them fit either.   
  
“Hmm…” He had a suspicion, but for that… he might need to get sneaky. “Jarvis, send the plans for the Desert Rescue 731B to Dr. Martin. Tell him I’d like him to design the bot”. He knew that he’d sent projects to the man before and the work had been good. “Also, pull up the schematics from the last 5 projects I have sent him”.   
  
He waved his cup at Eridan for the 5th time as he looked over the notes. This writing sounded more like Indigo. More technical than the blog for sure, but the tone of it fit. He’d have to video call the man next time. Maybe his private and his public writing differed drastically. Tony supposed he’d have to wait and see.   
  
Next to him Karkat groaned. “Want… Soul. fucking… hell. I need soul. … waiting for me…”   
  
Tony shook his head. “Karkat, buddy. You have a soul.” He said, ruffling the trolls' hair. Karkat still managed to hiss as he was touched. At least the kid was talking more, even if he did sound like he was hallucinating.   
  
“No. Soul. I want… Soul!”   
  
Tony was confused and it was a weird concept for him. He looked up to notice both Eridan and Tavros staring at Karkat, then Eridan looked at Tony and flushed.   
  
Tavros licked his lips, glanced at Tony, then at Karkat again, before he spoke. “Uhh… Re- I mean, Karkat… Who is Soul?” Tavros asked. “I mean… what is… their full umm, full name?”   
  
_“Oh, it’s a name”_. That made more sense he supposed. He again glanced at Eridan. The purple blood didn’t look surprised at all and Tony briefly tried to figure out why.   
  
Karkat groaned and reached out for Tavros. “Soul… I told him… I’d be back. Please… I… I need… Soul… lux”.   
  
“Sollux?” Eridan said, shaking his head and snorting.   
  
Tony agreed, that was a weird name. Tony thought as he downed his 7th shot of whisky. Why did that name sound like something he should know.   
  
The Bronze ignored both of them and stood up. “Umm. Was Sollux… uh, at T’R’U?” Tavros asked, walking closer to Karkat. Really it was only a few steps away, but the boy made it look hard. _“I am going to have to figure out how to fix that leg thing”_.   
  
Tony noticed that Karkat didn’t flinch from the Bronze blood. He felt jealous. _“Sollux is a troll name. Fuck, are they always six letters? That’s even weirder. Who the hell names them? Some fucking language nerd?”_   
  
“No… He’s… home. Still… in hell”. Karkat had reached out and touched Tavros and the other moved so that he was kneeling on the ground in front of the smaller troll. It looked like the Bronze was lost for words.   
  
Tony got up, not able to look at Tavros winch again. “Tavros, be nice to your legs. Watch your horns and switch places with me”. Tony didn’t actually go to the solo seat where Tavros had been sitting. No. He went next to Eridan. Eridan had the whisky.   
  
He ignored it as the cool boy leaned into him, pressing their shoulders together.   
  
_“I need to remember to ask Karkat more about this friend once he comes around”._ He held his cup out to Eridan.   
  
Hell didn’t sound like a nice place to live.   
  
  


**-Enter: Kurloz, Friday noon-** **  
**

**  
** **  
** Kurloz, or as his second master had named him  _ Rex _ , was far too hot and itchy this Texas morning. It was summer and the heat was stifling. He was also turning 83 years old today and that added to his irritation. Not that anyone cared about his age, but the troll always took note of his birthday.    
  
He didn’t look a day over 20, and he was extremely unsure how long he’d live for.    
  
He had seen two other trolls from local farms get old and die. It had been painful to watch at the time, however he had also been jealous. Something he was ashamed of. There were times that he was scared he would continue on and live forever. He didn’t want that. In truth, he wished he were dead. It was not that he wanted to kill himself, he just wanted his life to be over. He was so tired, all of the time. It felt like his life just… wouldn’t let up.    
  
Kurloz had been born during the great depression. First he’d been bought by a wealthy couple as a gift for their daughter. However, after only three weeks in that house, the family had gone bankrupt. He’d then been resold at an auction for a much lower price.    
  
The second man who had bought him had been a farmer and had treated Kurloz as little more than a mule or other working animal. If Kurloz's hadn’t done well, he was beat and starved. If he did well, sometimes he was still starved, depending on the current food availability. Kurloz couldn’t survive off of corn after all. 

He had been lucky in some ways. His master had not realized that he could fuck him until Kurloz was around 14 years old and the man had never bothered to drug him, or buy any weird training tools other than a training guide and an iron collar and chain. When his master had started having sex with him, nothing else had really changed for him then, other than he had a new chore he had to do.

For the first 8 years, his life had been routine. His life was straightforward . Any and all acts of defiance were met with immediate correction, in accordance with the training guide. The guide had listed the appropriate punishments for his age and blood color, along with the ‘level of correction required’. This meant that when he’d been 6 he’d been beaten with a bamboo cane, at 8 it had changed to a thick crop, and once he’d been over 12 it had been a series of different whips, ending with a chain whip.    
  
Every day from dusk until dawn he’d been chained in the barn after working the fields or doing other chores. Sometimes his master would come to him late at night and press him down on top of the hay, but that was only in warm weather. His work had been physically demanding, but simple.

In spring, he tilled the fields, fed the livestock, tended the garden and planted seeds. He usually got fed once a day or so, and he’d sneak a few scraps and the like. He’d not been above stealing from the pigs. When he got caught, he’d be strung up by his wrists and whipped. It didn’t stop him.

In summer, it was more of the same, but the nightly visits got more often.

In fall, it was always hard. He had to harvest the field, pick the fruits, help with the processing and butchering. The food got better, but he was beat more as his master's temper got worse.

This pattern had lasted until his master's wife died of a fever in the middle of 1941. The farmer started drinking, later that year, and all three of his sons went to join in the war effort. The man fell into a deep depression.    
  
A few months after his sons left, he brought Kurloz inside the house for the first time and gave him a cookbook and access to the pantry. Kurloz had learned to cook very fast after his master took to burning him when he messed up.    
  
In 1945 his middle son came home from the war.    
  
They never learned what happened to either of his brothers. Two years later his first master drank himself to death.

His second master, the man’s son, had also been a hard man. That same son had also brought chlamydia back from the war. The disease was transmissible from humans to trolls, but not from trolls to humans as Kurloz had the displeasure to later find out. The disease also affected Trolls and humans differently. It was painful at times. But Kurloz lived through that and through the man's own two teenage sons and the one that had later became his third master and the one after that.    
  
His current master was a 35-year old drunk meth addict who was on his second divorce. He, unlike his father, grandfather and great grandfather had never gone to war, and he’d never finished high school. He also wasn’t much of a farmer. They’d always been a violent family, but Kurloz was used to it by that point. However, at least his first three masters had been rational about it. 

This master beat him without warning, forced him to do sexually demeaning things and made him wait on him hand and foot. He also obviously thought it was hilarious when Kurlzs was unable to hide his unhappiness. Kurloz assumed it was some sort of schadenfreude. However, it really sucked to watch someone you’d help raise hurt you for no other reason than that they could.

Kurloz had never been a vocal man, but he’d flat out stopped speaking about 15 years before and no one had seemed to notice. He didn’t even let out sounds when he was beat or raped. He knew it was rape, he’d seen enough TV, and he knew he didn’t consent to the humiliating contact. But it didn’t matter. He couldn't do anything about it. Well, he probably could have killed the human, fairly easily actually. But that wouldn’t accomplish anything other than getting him killed as well. 

He’d thought the cycle would go on forever, and he’d eventually be given to whatever son his current master hated the least. In his dream world, he was given to the man’s sister. He’d loved her and had learned ASL to be able to communicate with her.    
  
He was wrong.    
  
Kurloz heard the front door bang open and his master's slurred words rang through the empty house.    
  
“Rexie boy, pack you’re fucking shit… I sold your lazy ass”.    
  
Those were words he’d never heard before. Not even when he’d been seized from his first master. But he didn’t need to be told twice. He shot through the house and packed his clothes, toothbrush, comb and a small shoe box filled with personal items he’d managed to keep from being thrown away over the years.    
  
Once he finished he grabbed his book on sign language, and followed his master to his old Ford truck.    
  
Kurloz took one long look at the house he’d lived in for 77 years as they pulled away.    
  
He was nervous, but… maybe the 5th time would be the charm? If it wasn't, what choice did he have? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys rule. If you like what you're reading, let me know. If you don't let me know why.


	13. A day in the life of two men and three teens and a boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three new faces, a fight, a rescue and some thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some insinuated abuse **warnings** for Kankri's POV. 
> 
> **Drug/death/life altering injury** mentioned warning for last two POVs.

**-Enter: Tony, Friday, 3:49 pm-** **  
**

  
  
The day was really going well. All things considered. He’d drunk half the whisky bottle, but Karkat had calmed down. The kid was still randomly mumbling and Tony wasn’t sure if he realised that but… it showed improvement. There was still no sign of aggression.  
  
  
  
  
Eridan was calm as well… even if the boy was leaning on him fairly heavily. Tony was telling himself to just not react. Pushing the teen away now would make him feel rejected and Tony wasn’t quite that selfish. Even if it was for his own comfort.  
  
  
  
  
“Sir? I discovered a troll that you own indirectly. He is at Orchid Pleasures Film Studio. It is 45 minutes away”.  
  
  
  
  
The day **had been going so well**. The name made Tony choke a little. “How do I **OWN THAT COMPANY**?” That didn’t seem like something he’d own. Or rather, something Pepper would have acquired or let be acquired. But he was already getting up and taking out his phone to get the directions.  
  
  
  
  
“Stark Enterprises owns New York Stars Plus Corp, and they own Orchid Pleasures Film.”  
  
  
  
  
Tony heard his phone ding and looked down to see a video link. He decided he wasn’t that curious at the moment.   
  
  
  
  
“Tell Bruce I am going to pick the boy up… Wait, what is his status?” He asked, looking back briefly at the three teenagers. They’d be fine until Bruce could get to them. “Behave you two”. He pointed at Tavros and Eridan.  
  
  
  
  
“Unknown. In the last video of him, he appeared to be healthy. Shell I tell them you are coming to collect the child?”  
  
  
  
  
Tony paused and took a deep breath, feeling suddenly very, very nauseated. He entered the elevator. “Yes. Make sure someone comes up to watch them”. He didn’t want them to think he didn’t trust them but… at the moment he didn’t.  
  
  
  
  
Karkat was drugged out of his mind. Tavros was liable to hurt himself or someone else and Eridan kept showing signs of microaggressive and possessive behaviours that he was sure the teenager was trying to hide from him.  
  
  
  
  
45 minutes… He could probably cut that to 30 if he took his motorcycle. Jarvis didn’t stop him, so it must be possible. He drove.  
  
  
  
  


**-Enter: Kankri 00-**   
**  
**

**  
**Kankri knew that he was owned by a film company that was owned by a conglomerate group that managed such companies. But not that it was owned by a parent business that was a direct Stark Industries subsidiary. Stark Industries owned 47% of all the shares of the parent company making them by far the largest shareholder.

Kankri was the only troll on staff and was marketed as an asset. His classification was ‘companion animal’ and he could be checked out by the employees by the hour.

He'd never left the room he was kept in after his initial arrival. At least, not according to his memory.

In the room there was a bed, a closet, a desk, a chair and a screened off area with a shower and toilet. The floor was curved cement and there was a drain in the center of it.

There was no TV. No books and the only window was too high to see much out of. But Kankri didn't remember what he was missing. It’d been night when he’d left the transport all those years before.

He had a rubber ball and some jacks along with a pen and some random bits of paper and lids and stuff he hid and he'd occupy himself by playing with them. He formed the paper and lids into dolls. Sometimes he’d act out scenes. Other times he’d stand them up before knocking them down with the ball or he'd played jacks. It was really nice of Susan to give him the jacks. The pen he used as a random toy. Kankri used to draw on himself but the pen had run out of ink.

The boy knew to hide the pen and dolls or they'd be thrown away. It was naughty to hide things, but he really liked them.

He didn't know where the people who entered came from however he didn't really think about it much anymore. If he had been asked to explain the world he'd have described a place like his room. Just many of them. Or a world of night, filled with stars. 

He wasn't educated beyond what he seemed to just… know already. Kankri had never tried to escape. That’d be BAD! He wanted to please the adults and did his best to do so. But he did like to talk!

Kankri would make up stories about his pen falling through the rooms and floating in colours or in water. He'd imagine words he knew but never seen, like moons or cars or cats and he'd tell himself about them. He knew he was not supposed to talk to the workers that came in and usually they didn't like him to speak. So he listened. But those that came a lot would appear in his stories, along with the things they said, or did.

He'd also touch himself, trying to figure out why they liked to do it.  
  
He asked himself question after question aloud to the empty room. Why did some humans hurt him and why did some not hurt him at all? Why did some press inside his body and why did others just cuddle him? That part was nice. He’d touch their faces if they were upset and purr, or chirp. Mostly the women seemed to really like it when he did that. Though sometimes the men did too. He thought long and hard on these questions but he couldn’t find the answer.

They said he made them feel good and male humans released semen. That was their genetic material. Kankri knew that. But Kankri didn't feel like they looked when he touched himself or when he was touched. It just felt like touching, or maybe overly sensitive or painful… like in his ears or up his nose.

It confused him so he'd try and do it himself to get those good feelings. Or he'd do it out of boredom. He was usually bored.

Sometimes he'd try and look out the window, but the chair did not move and he could not scale the wall with his blunt nails. Kankri had tried running and jumping at it. He wanted to see where the light came from. He’d have assumed another room but he knew it was the sun. He could see the sun, the clouds and the sky. 

Kankri might have been uneducated but he wanted to know everything and he wanted to tell everyone everything.

Why was he grey?

Why was he a troll?

How old was he?

Why did he know all of these words he'd never heard or seen?

How could he read?

Why did men like him?

When was dinner?

What was a horse?

Where was a moon?

Why didn't he have nipples?

Why DID humans have them?

What was a human? They weren’t trolls. 

If he was a male, what was the difference between him and girl trolls?

… Why was he always left alone?

… Why did they touch him?

… … … Why did he exist?

… … … … Could he please stop existing? 

He shook off thoughts that troubled him and sang a little made up song he'd heard sung by the birds.

That was life for him.

It was confusing.  
  
 _He didn’t like it. He wanted to never be left alone again but… he didn’t want them to touch him._

The most important thing he didn't know was that he was technically owned by Stark Industries. He didn't know one Anthony Stark had learned of his existence. And he didn't know that the yelling outside the door would change his whole life.  
  
When the door opened and a black haired, middle aged man entered, looking flushed human red and angry Kankri did know something was up. 

**  
**Susan was standing behind him, looking upset and stunned. “K-Kankri… I uh… you need to go with this man…” She said, actually quivering. She was crying!  
  
“What…? Why? Where am I going? Do I have to leave? Did I do something bad? I can make you feel better! I’ll do better!” He was backing away, rambling as fast as he could talk. Not able to help himself or keep the words in.  
  
“KANKRI. SHUT UP!” Another voice said. Tom. Tom was mean to him and he often hurt him. That was one of the types of touching he hated. The black haired human turned and slammed the door in both of their faces.  
  
He then took a sigh and Kankri noticed that he looked very upset. “Uh. Kankri? I am going to take you away from here to my house and… you’ll have some friends there. Err… other trolls. Do you have anything you wanna pack?” The man looked uncomfortable as well.  
  
The boy did what he usually did in that situation, even though he wanted to talk and soothe the human that way.  
  
He walked over and touched the humans face. “Shhh…” Kankri didn’t want to be hurt, and an angry adult was never good. **  
****  
**Tanned fingers grabbed his hand and gently moved it away from his face. “We really need to go kid. My name is Tony Stark. Is there anything you want to bring?”  
  
Kankri opened his mouth, before shutting it, then opening it again. “I have my clothes and my jacks and my dolls. Can… Can I bring those? I made them myself out of paper and bottle lids. Mostly Pepsi bottle lids. But I also used some string from one of my old shirts. I know it was wrong to rip it. But it was already ruined. That’s Ok right? To break something that is already ruined? Do I have to leave? Why can’t I stay? I don’t want to be bad. But I really don’t want to leave. I can stay here. I like it here. I-”  
  
Tony was holding up his hand. “Kankri. Breathe kiddo. Breathe. Get your stuff. You can’t stay here and you can bring your… dolls and jacks. I’ll grab your clothes for you. Fuck there isn’t a bag is there…”  
  
The little Candy Blood did as he was told and grabbed his stuff. “Do I have to bring the desk and the chair? I can’t move those things. Can you move them? If you get me the stuff, I think I can help move them. I-”  
  
The hand was up again. “I have a place for you to sleep. Later you’ll be able to set up your room. For now… you ready?”  
  
Kankri wasn’t ready. Not at all. He still really didn’t want to leave and he reacted… by crying. His hands clutching his jacks and dolls.  
  
“Hey. Hey. It’s OK kiddo. Kankri. I promise. No one is going to hurt you. You… you can talk more on the drive. We just need to go. OK? I want to hear what you’re thinking.” There was a weird guilty look on the humans face. Or was it nervous? Kankri was pretty sure it was both, but the words made him stop crying.  
  
“Oh. Ok… I am ready Tony. Or should I call you mister Stark? Or mister Tony Stark? Or master? Are you my master now? Will I have more masters? Or mistresses?”  
  
Tony touched his back, holding his clothes. “One question at a time.”  
  
He then started to reply and led him outside.  
  
It was so different than Kankri had ever thought… He told Tony ALL about it as they drove on the two wheeled device. **  
****  
**

**-Enter: Karkat, Friday, 4:30 pm-** **  
**

**  
**  
It seemed like everything was happening too slowly. It was hard to think and hard to… move. However, unlike the day before he understood WHY he felt like that. He’d been drugged. Karkat wanted so badly to be angry but… he wasn’t. In all honesty he didn’t care.  
  
  
  
  
Logically he knew that he should. The drugs were making it so he couldn’t be angry and he KNEW that. Unfortunately knowing that actually changed nothing. Not one single microscopic thing.  
  
  
  
  
On the bright side, it was getting easier to actually think as time passed. Eventually, Karkat was hopeful he’d be able to get angry again… he didn’t feel right this way at all. Keeping track of his own train of thought was like pulling teeth and he just… wanted Sollux. Or, to at least type at him. But Karkat wasn’t even sure if he could read at the moment, much less type.  
  
  
  
  
He hadn’t known he’d been muttering allowed until Tony had spoken to him and told him he had a soul.  
 _  
What the fuck had been up with that? Did he have a soul? Didn’t… or, wasn’t that a human thing? Animals didn’t have souls. He knew he’d been told that at some point. What… Why was Tony talking about a soul anyway? He wanted Sollux, not a soul. What would he do with a soul?  
_  
  
  
  
  
Karkat knew he’d told Tony and T...Tavros? Yeah… that sounded right. Tavros and Elicon. The Violet blood seemed like a total douche canoe.  
 _  
That was a weak… weak fucking insult.  
_  
He hoped that he said it allowed.  
  
  
  
  
He must have, because Elicon was looking at him with a pretty damn affronted look on his face. Karkat felt a weird urge to stick his tongue out at the other, so he was pretty sure that he did. His chest was rumbling. Was he laughing?  
  
  
  
  
He was pretty sure he was laughing.  
  
  
  
  
“MY NAME IS ERIDAN! NOT ELICON!”  
  
  
  
  
“That… doesn’t…. Sound like a… real fucking… name… douche canoe… hahaha… Your face… looks like a plum. Are you… fucking flushed for me?” Who the fuck was talking? Karkat turned his head, to see Tavros staring at him with wide eyes.   
  
  
  
  
_  
Oh. I am talking. That makes sense.  
_  
He was also flipping him off. That was nice.  
  
  
  
  
“Howw dare you. You COD DAMN LOWW BLOOD BASTARD! How DARE YOU INSINUATE THAT I’D BE FLUSHED FOR YOU!” Eridan had risen from his chair and was shaking with rage.  
  
  
  
  
Karkat was fairly sure he should be scared. He really, really wasn’t. He was just… amused apparently, because he was still laughing.  
  
  
  
  
His face really hurt a few seconds later though.  
  
  
 **  
**

**-Enter: Tavros-** **  
**

****  
****

**  
**“UH. ERIDAN. YOU. UH. YOU NEED TO NOT DO THAT!” Tavros knew he wasn’t that brave and was normally pretty passive but he wasn’t gonna sit back as someone BEAT SOMEONE WEAKER THAN THEM! He might not be brave. But he wasn’t a fucking coward who was gonna do nothing!  
  
  
  
  
The Bronze boy reached over and grabbed Eridan’s raised fist.  
  
  
  
  
“DON’T TOUCH ME SHIT BLOOD!” Eridan screamed, turning and pushing Tavros away from him.  
 **  
  
  
  
**His ankle caught the coffee table and Tavros’s eyes went wide as he fell over backwards.  
  
  
  
  
He hit the table with a crash and his left horn caught on the couch. It was really lucky actually, though it hurt bad!  
  
  
  
  
Eridan’s eyes went wide and he lowered his fist. “Tavvros… fuck. Are you all right?” The anger seemed to have passed just like that.  
 **  
  
  
  
**Then Karkat started to laugh louder.  
  
  
  
  
“THIS ISN’T FUNNY LOWW BLOOD!” Eridan was moving back towards Red and Tavros was doing his best to get up, but his hip felt like it was spazzing out.  
  
  
  
  
“ERIDAN. STAND DOWN!” Steve said, looking out of breath as he entered the room.  
  
  
  
  
The violet blood paled, before stepping away. “He started it Stevve… I swwear. He started it”. **  
  
  
  
  
**“Sit down. NOW”. The blond said, before going over to Tavros. “Hey… here”. He pulled him up like it was nothing. “Take a seat.” His eyes then saw the blood coming from Red’s face.  
  
  
  
  
The human actually pinched the bridge of his nose. “Tavros… what happened/”  
  
  
  
  
Tavros didn’t know what else to do other than tell the truth. So he did.  
 ** **  
**  
 **  
**  
**

**-Enter: Cool kid/Dave Strider, Friday, 6:37 pm-**

  
  
Dave was fiddling with the remote more than he was actually playing the Playstation one, first edition Tony Hawk game. Bro was out for something and had told him to wait and “chill the fuck out little man. You’re too god damn tense”.  
  
  
  
  
It hadn’t been as reassuring as the elder Strider probably thought it was but… heck, if Bro wanted him to cool his tits and chill, Dave was gonna make sure he was as cool as permafrost during an arctic storm. Pre global warming!  
  
  
  
  
The mental image made the ten year old chuckle, even as he shook his head. He pressed a key combo that ended with Tony doing a perfectly executed S.K.A.T.E. He then switched it to ‘Single Session’ and once again tried to see if he could break Dirk’s old score. It hadn’t happened yet and Dirk had nothing on Bro’s second place. They didn’t talk about first place.  
  
  
  
  
Dave was disappointed when he didn’t even manage to break his old score from before his acc…  
  
  
  
  
The white haired boy shook his head. He didn’t want to think about the ‘before’. All there was was the moment and he wasn’t gonna waste that thinking about stupid ‘what was’. It WASN’T ANYMORE. There was NOTHING HE COULD DO ABOUT IT. He’d had MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME  
 _  
to cool his tits._ _  
  
  
_  
After another moment he threw the controller away. Dave hated being alone in the house. It made the tinnitus flare up and get worse and worse until he would come to, only to realise that he was curled up covering his ears. He’d have no idea how long he’d been like that.  
  
  
  
  
The ringing was building at the moment and it was only those thoughts that made him register that his hands had risen to his ears again. Holding his head didn’t make the sound go away.  
  
  
  
  
It really wasn’t cool that the only thing he’d ever hear again was that god awful resonance reverberating around inside his brain. It reminded Dave of when his sound equipment had fucked up and that piercing had reared up like an angry AI bent on deafening all of mankind. Or… just him. The irony… was it even ironic? It just felt cruel. At least… if you were the one suffering from it.  
  
  
  
  
Stress, his doctor had said caused his tinnitus. Stress. That wasn’t FUCKING HELPFUL! The ringing started to hurt and Dave couldn’t help it as he curled up on the couch. He just wished someone else could hear the sound so he wasn't alone with it.  
  
  
  
  
Dave came too when the TV auto turned off. A distraction. That was what he needed to calm down.  
  
  
  
  
He’d pester Dirk and then it would all go away. It’d been too long since he’d pestered his cousin.  
  
  
  
  
As the kid got up his foot knocked one of the moving boxes. The movers were going to come on Monday and then they’d fly out to New York. Dave was excited to be leaving the apartment. Bro said he was gonna go to public school and several of Dave’s online friends lived in New York too, as did Dirk!  
  
  
  
  
Dave didn’t think he’d miss Texas. It was hot and filled with memories… The boy's eyes strayed over to the closed doorway that led to that stairwell.  
  
  
  
  
No. He wasn’t gonna miss this place at all.  
  
  
  
  
Once inside of his already boxed up room, he sat on his bed and pulled open his laptop. Soon he was writing away.  
  
  
  
  
He’d tell Dirk this time. Tell him everything.  
  
  
  
  


\-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering timaeusTestified[TT] \--  
TG: yo dude. are you there?  
TG: i..  
TG: i have this totally lit new camera and i wanted to show it off.  
TT: Hey, really? You're gonna have to show me it little man, put your money where your mouth is.  
TG: i'll text you a pic. hold onto your weeb pillow and get ready to have your mind blown to mars then back to earth and then round the bend until it smacks you in the face and all you can think about is the glorious jealousy that is surging through your cardiovascular system.  
TG: bam! take a look at the majesty that is my new tool.  
TT: Sweet. Where'd you pick it up? A garage sale? Kiddo, the 1980's called, they are requesting their archaic and underwhelming household staple back. It's not iconic, it's just sad.  
TG: shut the fuck up dirk. this is a classic and you're just revealing you have all the taste of raw tofu.  
TTT: I could argue that all day. Bring it cousin of mine. I'll come down on you like Caesar came down on Pompey after the death of Julia. You'll think you've gotten away and then my wicked connections will lead to your complete annihilation.  
TT: Wait.  
TT: Before you spiral head over heels into the void on that excellent historic reference, how are your raps coming? You haven't sent me any of your mixes lately. Did you fall off of the cool wagon straight into a chasm of polaroids?  
TG: ive just not been feeling it. my hobbies are vast and all encompassing like the atlantic ocean.  
TT: Really? I liked showing them off to Jake. They were interesting in ways I could only adequately describe in a Disney esk Musical with five acts.  
TG: are you trying to tell me you're a princess dirk? i already knew that. it's why i got you that sparkly scarf for christmas.  
TT: I am 100% a princes. I wore the shit out of that fabulous orange monstrocity. The play would be a work of absolute commitment and effort. However, I will save you the confusion and just say, it'd be of a majesty that I think Jake would appreciate as much as you'd hate it.  
TG: eww dude. what you and jake do when you do your creepy ass flirting thing is between you and jake. i am a child you creep.  
TT: One day you'll come over the bend and join us on the other side. It might be dark here, but damn are the cookies good.  
TG: Come on little dude, hit me up with a rap now. Something I can spring on the love of my life to show off your quote on quote "skills".  
TG: fine. you wanna throw down? i'll throw down with you here and now. show you the true epicness that is me. 

**(Insert rap)**

TT: Wow. I have to say, from the depth of my true self... that was pretty damn disappointing. Are you feeling alright Dave? How has my uncle been treating you?  
TG: bro is still the cool king of texas and the baddest mother fucker this side of new york.  
TT: Really? Is that what you're going with? You sure about that?  
TG: yep. don't like it, come back home and try and snatch the crown for yourself. until then, you just look hella jealous.  
TT: Whatever little dude. You just pestering me to show me your "retro" camera?  
TG: yep. that's the only reason. don't have any other news, sorry oh cousin of mine. anyway. i gotta go. got too much shit to occupy my mind and not enough time to do it all. 

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering timaeusTestified[TT] \--

There was a part of Dave that actually felt guilty. So very guilty. But he couldn’t do it. Dirk might treat him differently.  
  
Bro sure did.  
  


**-Enter: Bro(derick) Friday, 6:37 pm-**

Bro just wanted to be on the plane already. Leave this entire shithole of a state behind him, along with all of his fuckups. He hated that apartment. It was nothing but a shrine to all of the times he’d screwed everything up.  
  
  
As he’d cleaned everything in the flat, he’d eventually had to do his own bedroom. A room he hadn’t gone into in years. There he’d come across more and more projects he’d started and never finished. Knives he’d planned to sell. Cameras he’d wanted to set up. Notebooks filled with idea after idea. Mixing equipment and CD’s with his original material.  
  
  
Bro had sorted and packed until his hand had touched that half finished fucking stuffed smuppet.  
  
  
The most ironic and iconic idea he’d ever had…  
  
  
Bro remembered showing his brother that exact smuppet.  
  
  
David had thought it was the stupidest thing in the world, so of course he’d told him to invest in the idea. Said Bro should set up a website and sell them internationally.   
  
  
Dirk had been sitting on David’s lap, calmly playing on his Gameboy. The five year old had been David’s reason for trying so hard to walk the straight and narrow. Far more than Dave had been Bro’s reason for doing anything.  
  
  
For a few weeks, Bro had even seen himself creating the puppets and coding the cites. Making some videos, ads, mixing up all the tracks. He'd bought more cameras. Read even more books on coding and web design.  
  
  
He’d sold more and more product for his boss, to get the cash for the supplies, saving up to start and leave this life behind. Raise himself up, like David had been doing for six years at that point.  
  
  
Bro had been so fucking close when he’d gotten that call from the cops.  
  
  
Dave had been bludgeoned in an alley while he was coming home from school.  
  
  
His older brother had been so much better than him at everything. David had been 23 years old, worked two legal jobs, raised his kid impeccably and was halfway through getting his B.As. in both Business and Economics.  
  
  
Then he’d been hit from behind and it’d all been over. Flushed like the cocaine during the drug raids when they were kids.  
  
  
Bro had never learned who’d done it, but he’d had his suspicions. A week before David’s past had come knocking at their door in the form of his old pimp and he’d slammed the door in the man's face.  
  
  
Bro had made it his life's goal to make sure that nothing like that ever happened to Dirk or Dave. Nothing that had EVER happened to him or David would happen to those kids.  
  
  
He’d put away all the technical books, all his original ideas and all his former goals.  
  
  
He’d trained hard every FUCKING DAY.  
  
  
Running, crossfit, bench pressing, deadlifting, karate, chin ups, planks, sword training, shooting ect. He did it all or at least tried it and he made Dirk and Dave do it too.  
  
  
Sure he was harsh at times, but it was for their own good.  
  
  
He’d burned down that pimps house with him inside it.  
  
  
As he’d got bigger and stronger, he’d risen up in the gang and been given more responsibility, more power and more cash.  
  
  
He’d worked to become unbeatable. There, Bro was pretty sure he’d succeeded. Every scar on his body was a testament to how far he’d come.  
  
  
Still, he’d not been able to leave that apartment behind. David's ghost had haunted it in the best, most painful way. Bro could still see and hear his brother's shadow sticking around. Then Dirk had left him out of the blue four years ago. Not a hint of a warning. The little fucker had just left a note saying he was moving in with his best friend. Later he’d learned Dirk went to New York.  
  
  
Then his boss had moved to New York too. Bro had started flying back and forth, biweekly to work. He’d left Dave alone to watch the flat.  
  
  
He’d trained him to fight, to protect himself, whenever he was home.  
  
  
FUCK! He’d FUCKING WARNED THE LITTLE SHIT ABOUT THOSE STAIRS.  
  
  
The bad memories had finally outweighed the good ones and there had been no reason for him to stay in Texas. In fact, there’d been every reason for him to move long before Dave had _tripped_ .  
  
  
After 18 months of agonizing over it, he’d bit the bullet and made the arrangements.  
  
  
He’d been prepared to fly out that morning and just put his trust in the recommended movers when his boss had called.  
  
  
Said he’d gotten him a gift to make his life easier and he just had to pick it up. Bro had driven to the rendezvous point and seen the described car pull up half an hour late.  
  
  
Of all the things he’d expected as a gift… a 6 foot 10 inch purple eyed troll hadn’t made the list.  
  
  
“You Broderick Strider? This is Rexy. I was told to tell you he knows ASL and cooking and shit. Good with kids too”.  
  
  
Bro briefly glanced at the short human to appraise his threat, or lack thereof, before he walked up to the troll. “It’s Bro. Not Broderick”.  
  
  
Fuck it was huge and strong looking. He felt heat flush through him. Strifing with it might take real effort. There was potential there… he could lose. It was a thrilling thought. _“You know ASL? Prove it. What’s your name?”_ He rapidly signed.  
  
  
The troll simply smiled and replied, as fluid as water. Far more fluid then his own relatively new skills.  
  
  
Bro smirked. “Says his name is Kurlos. Fucking better then Rexy”. He signed to the troll to get in the car and didn’t say anything else to the man.  
  
  
Leaving Dave now would be easier. After all, the kid wouldn’t be alone.  
  
  
Besides, it’d be easier to watch Dirk now too. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review and let let me know what you think! 
> 
> I am thinking about adding **art** to this story. Do you like that idea?


	14. Two days at Sol's and Papped faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sollux survives at his house, though he wishes he didn't have too. 
> 
> Tony gets a lap full of trilling troll and learns about papping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the Sollux POV is potentially triggering and is explicit at points. You can skip it if you need to, though it does contain some plot. 
> 
> I added art.

**-Enter: Sollux, (That past) Thursday 12:10 pm-**

****  
KK wasn’t back online yet and he swallowed hard. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much but… he had a bad feeling.  
  
  
_  
THAT FUCKING BULGE BRAINED ASSHOLE LIKED MAKING HIM WORRY HIS PANTS OFF!  
_  
Sollux knew it, but he waited anyway.  
  
  
  
  
That morning he gotten lucky, times two.  
  
  
_  
Titus had woken him up at 5:27 with a kick to his side. But he was holding out that ipad. “Put it on fucking mute next time or I’ll fucking break it. Now, go MAKE ME BREAKFAST”. His eyes were groggy and angry, and Sollux wasn’t going to test him.  
__  
_  
_  
Not that he would anyway. Testing Titus was a great way to court pain. Sollux was suicidal, not a masochist. “Yeth. What do you want?” He asked, pulling himself out of Mike’s grasp and trying not to stumble. He forced himself to stand and put on his clothes. He was so tired, sore and shaking like a leaf from a mix of low blood sugar and pain.  
_  
  
_  
“Normal fucking breakfast retard”. Titus said, rolling his eyes, before leaving the room to go and sit on the couch in the living room. Sollux wished once again that Titus would sleep in, but the guy rarely did.  
_  
  
_  
“Yeth thir”. He set the ipad down in the corner, with his other things, before going to do as he was told. He hadn’t even had time to check who pestered him. Once in the kitchen he opted to make coffee, bacon, eggs, sausage and toast. Sollux actually made a good amount of food, partially because Mike and Jeff would get some when they woke up and partially because he was hoping that Titus would let him eat._ _  
_  
_  
He dished up the man's food and somehow managed to not drop it on the way to give it to him. The shaking was worse now that he smelled food. The great thing about bacon and sausage were that they didn’t require a knife to prepare. If that’d been the case, Sollux knew that he’d have cut the ever loving shit out of his own fingers.  
_  
_  
Titus took the food before turning on the TV to watch the news. The parts that Titus laughed at really sold the ‘I am a psychopath’ vibe that the adult had going on.  
__  
  
That wasn’t an insult either. Sollux was pretty damn sure Titus had some sort of severe personality disorder. Probably psychopathy, but he wasn’t a doctor. He just knew the man hurt everyone whenever he wanted and he didn’t need a reason.  
_  
_  
Hearing that man laugh, Sollux turned to see the image of some crying parents whose young daughter had been found dead that morning. Sollux remembered the amber alert for her two days before.  
_  
_  
“Fucking stupid bastards had a stupid kid. Bet she liked it”.  
_  
_  
Sollux started on washing the dishes, looking away from the TV. He really, really hoped he was allowed to at least sleep soon. His eyes hurt and his brain was foggy as shit. Thinking every thought felt like he was trying to play a 1040p video on a dial up connection.  
_  
_  
After another 15 minutes Titus stood up and turned off the TV. He held out his plate. “Finish that, then fucking feed the slut once he wakes up. I’m not gonna be back for a few days”.  
_  
_  
There really wasn’t a lot of food left on the plate, but Sollux wasn’t gonna argue… and he was gonna steal some more food once the man left. No one would be around to fucking see him do it! What they didn’t know couldn’t hurt him.  
_  
  
_  
He noticed that Titus seemed to be waiting for something, a pissed off look on his face. “Thank you thir, I will. Yeth. I’ll tell Mike and Jeff too.” That seemed to work and Titus turned and left the apartment._ _  
_  
_  
It took Sollux the 12 seconds it took to walk back to the kitchen, for him to finish off the food left on that plate. He grabbed two more strips of bacon, a sausage and a straight up handful of eggs, cramming it all into his mouth and chewing. Once finished he loaded the plate back up with enough food for Cronus, before setting it next to the kids sleeping body. Fuck the boy looked like shit. All molted shades of violet all over his skinny little body.  
_  
_  
Sollux didn’t wake him. Instead he licked off his fingers and went to his corner. There he had a pile that consisted of his three other outfits, a pillow and his two blankets. And his ipad of course. Sitting and nestling in he opened pesterchum…  
__  
_  
His punishment had ended!  
  
  
Not to mention KK WAS FUCKING ALIVE!  
  
  
  
The KK thing was twice as good as the food and shit.  
  
  
  
It’d felt like his heart had actually stopped when he’d been confronted by that grey text. He’d never had KK’s messages directed at him before, but he’d seen them on this very ipad. KK had used it to contact his own few friends. Sometimes Sollux wondered how terminallyCapricious, gallowsCalibrator and timaeusTestified were doing. He’d honestly never checked after KK had… well, been taken away and he went from a pair to a stupid single.  
  
  
  
Sollux hated odd numbers and the oddest number had to be ONE! He checked the time. Jeff had woken at 10:30ish and he’d had to help him out a few times, but so far the morning had been really damn chill.  
  
  
  
12:38. He settled in to wait when he saw Mike moving, tapping the futon next to him. He honestly wanted to groan or sneak out of the room. But he didn’t. He just… held really still. Maybe the blond human would go back to sleep.  
  
  
  
“Sollux… fucking hell man. Where are you?” Mike’s groggy voice rang out, loud enough that he’d have heard it if he’d been in the kitchen. “I am fucking HORNY MAN!”  
  
  
_  
No dice fuck face.We just gotta try and think of London or some pathetic wiggler shit.._ _  
_  
  
  
“I am right here. No need to thhout out. Jutht playing Clathh of Clanth”. He lied, before putting the ipad back down. KK would reply later. Hopefully he’d be on, though if he wasn’t, they could always play tag for a few hours.  
  
  
  
The teenager stripped off his red pajama shorts and his blue top. It was his favourite outfit as it matched his eyes. Red and blue were the best colors ever. _Gotta make nice. We gotta be a good little fuck.- Good slut you mean._  
  
  
  
As soon as he was close enough Mike pulled him down and literally rolled on top of him. It hurt his ribs and his hips bad. But he spread his legs and reached up, stroking the others face, smiling. “You horny for me M? Maketh me feel all thpecial.” He said, before kissing Mike’s lips.  
  
  
“Hehe… Always hot stuff”. His master kissed him back, before reaching down and pulling his hard cock out of his own night pants. He then pulled Sollux’s hips up, before pressing into Sollux’s left side nook. The troll wrapped his legs around the other's hips and pulled him in with a low moan.  
  
  
He had two of everything. Two sets of horns, two eyes, two hands, two feet and yeah, two bulges and two nooks. The bulge thing was usually pretty damn nice. The nook thing… could be nice.  
  
  
  
Right now neither areas felt _nice_ though. More along the lines of giant bruises. But he bit his tongues and wrapped his arms around Mike, pressing his face into the humans shoulder. _Make him feel good.  
_  
  
_Fuck… it hurt’s so bad_ . He grabbed at Mike more, needing to hold someone, pretend that this was different. 

  
That it didn’t ache.  
  
  
That it didn’t burn.  
  
  
That this was an act of love.  
  
  
Part of him wished they could feel how he felt but he knew it’d never happen and… part of him didn’t hate them that much. The only one who’d really understood was… who knows where. He’d never see him again. _“Cronus might understand.- Nah. The little fucker isn’t strong enough. He is gonna be dead soon.-No he’s not. If we can deal, then so can that hard boned sea troll. -Don’t front mother fucker. Sea troll or not, the brat is almost as pathetic as we are and he’s not even half of what KK was.- One day we’ll be bigger, then we’ll be strong enough.”_  
  
  
Sollux couldn’t delude himself at the moment. He didn’t have the energy to lie to himself like that. Nothing would ever make this better or scrub him clean. No matter how strong he got or how much he grew. No human would ever understand, because no human would ever care enough to try.  
  
  
Sollux knew his bones would always be breakable, his blood vessels burstable, his mind foggable and his body usable. He was the sum of his parts like a computer or a skateboard. _“Please make it stop- We’re really fucking weak. But, this is fine. Mike and Jeff love us- they love this part of us. We don’t deserve more. We’re already greedy as shit. - IT FUCKING HURTS”._ The troll was having trouble pretending like he enjoyed it, and his body had stilled against the ministration.  
  
  
This was all the love he was ever going to get. He needed to take it and run with it and _give it back_ .  
  
  
He held that warm body as that cock moved in and out of him. The wet sounds were building as his body reacted as best it could. _“See? We like it- We’re a pathetic slut.-Being a slut is better than being alone. -Nah, it’s not. Being dead would be best.- We’re not that brave. Don’t pretend. Fake it until you make it, bitch”._ His hetero-chromatic eyes filled up with mustard tears. _“Please, fucking finish ALREADY.”_ That was said by both halves of himself.  
  
  
His own twin bulges were sliding out of his body and moving over his hips and stomach, looking for something to press into or curl against. Some sort of reciprocation. Feeling them slide over his skin added to the feelings of humiliation already prevalent inside of him.  
  
  
Sollux ignored them. _“Touching them would make this feel better. -We’re a fucking masochist.”_ This would be over soon and he didn’t want to have to scrub the futon again. No. He’d jerk off in the shower later. Alone.  
  
  
Mike grunted, grabbing his shoulders and pressed Sollux down into the bed, leaning back. He switched his grip to the trolls hips and dug his fingers into Sollux’s hips. He sped up,thrusting harder, before throwing his head back and moaning loudly as he shot inside. Sollus raised his own arm to cover his face. He didn’t want the other male to see. It felt like his hips, nook and ribs were on fire. Literally, the pain felt hot.  
  
  
Mike fell back on top of him, hard before sighing in a way that sounded vaguely put upon. The humans just sat, looking at him intently for several moments. Sollux could feel that hot breath on his neck and knew Mike was gathering his thoughts.  
  
  
When he finally spoke, his voice sounded rough, irritated and condescending. “Move your fucking arm, you little yellow bastard. I know it hurts. You gotta stop fucking with Titus dickwad. Leave the gross cold ass brat alone! You’re so fucking stupid sometimes. Seriously Sol. Pull a trip like that again and I’ll fuck you up”. Mike brought up his smooth fingers and gently brushed those yellow tears away in a way that belied his prior tone. “You know I reallylove morning sex Sol. It’s ruder than shit of you to do crap like that. I wanted to fuck you all day yesterday but I held off because **you** were an idiot. Don’t do that to me again”. He said, before smiling and rolling off him and yawning. _“See? He cares about us. -He cares about getting his dick wet and food”._

Mike reached into his backpack and pulled out a white tablet. “ Here, fucking take this, then go get me some coffee Sol”.  
  
  
_“See? Sex and food.- Yeah and the vicodin why? You got nothing. ”_ He shook the thought away. “Will do Mike”. The troll got up, standing for a second, willing his bulges to get the hint and the nerves in his hips and thighs to calm THE FUCK DOWN and stop fluttering like some ugly winged nectar bug, before he pulled his clothes back on. “You want breakfatht too?” He asked, not turning back to look at his master. The pill was put onto his mouth dry and he chewed it up, before swallowing. 

“Hmm. Yeah. Sure. Bring it here”.  
  
  
A little while later he told them that Titus was out and they played games for several hours. Sollux didn’t do as well as he typically did however and Jeff got frustrated. Eventually the two brothers started to fight over the lead controller and what game they were going to play. Sollux got an elbow in the head and opted to go shower.  
  
  
“Hey Sol. I’ve REAL serious about not fucking with the kid.” Mike called after him. _“He really thinks you’re stupid. Like you can’t hear. Then again, you are stupid.- Shut the fuck up other me”._ He was too tired for his own bullshit. Sollux just wanted his mind to leave him alone.  
  
  
As he passed a deep red mark on the stained carpet he paused. He really should go and scrub all this shit up. They had some bleach. Maybe he could do the walls too? First he could get the cobwebs out, then vacuum and scrub the walls. Then he could scrub the floors. Inside his mind he started to set up a game plan for doing the full house. The idea of a shower was soon forgotten.

  
Sollux checked his iPad 159 times over the next 6 hours. During that time he had sex with Jeff three times, baked three different types of cookies, dusted, sorted all of the laundry into piles, scrubbed the walls of several rooms, the floors of a few and had 11 other chores half started. Nothing seemed clean to him however. The troll swore he could still see the stains.

  
He could hear the humans talking. “Isn’t he gonna hurt himself more? Fuck, it’s been a long ass time since he acted this whack”. “Leave him alone Jeff. He’s gone manic. So long as he doesn’t fuck with my shit I’m all G”.  
  
  
Eventually it was dinner time and Sollux made pizza. It was what they wanted. Personally it tasted like flour and salty acid. He’d grabbed some of the plastic kiddie plates for Cronus when Mike snorted. “No Sol. Put some of the Troll Chow in a bowl then hand it over”.  
  
  
Sollux couldn’t help the face he made. Pizza might not taste that good or make him feel full but even fresh Troll Chow was pretty vile and… that chow wasn’t fresh by a long shot. He did as he was told and handed it over.  
  
  
After dinner, they played games until 1 am. Then it was more sex and Sollux ended up wrapped in Jeff’s arms. It was warm and nice and… it again made his mind drift to the past.  
  
  
_It was the winter after Cronus had been brought home and it was snowing outside and the apartment was freezing. All of the humans were bundled up, as was Sollux. He was between Jeff and Mike, wrapped in the blankets with them._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _Titus was out. He’d been really, really pissed when the sea troll had gotten colder and colder with the weather. Oddly enough, Cronus seemed to be able to take the cold far better than Sollux or Karkat ever had._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _That didn’t mean he found it comfortable, but… even without a blanket, the nights didn’t kill him. Instead, the kid seemed to just slow down a lot and turn a very deep shade of violet._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _The part that really seemed to hurt the kid was when Sollux had to force him into the warm shower. That seemed like it hurt. Bad._ _  
_ _  
_

_  
_ _It wasn’t like he had a choice, but that really didn’t make him feel better. If he didn’t do it, they’d both suffer far worse. Still, he felt like he was no better than Titus when he did it. Sollux had to remind himself that he wasn’t supposed to judge Titus, that could end badly._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _He knew he saw steam come off the kid sometimes, as he held him by the back of his neck under that water. Cronus would grab at him with his blunt fingers, the nails having been pulled out, and beg Sollux to stop. Even though Cronus knew that Sollux couldn’t stop. Not even though he wanted too, truly._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _As he’d wash him, the water would always run violet and new wounds would surface from where the grime had hidden them from view. Cut’s and burns and things Sollux didn’t know what to call. Things that made him glad he wasn’t the kid._ _  
_ _  
  
_ Seeing those marks, hearing those sounds…  
_  
  
_ _He felt pathetic and selfish and cruel and… like a coward when he had those grateful thoughts. But those feelings didn’t make his grateful feelings go away._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _Titus had been obsessed with breaking Cronus into the perfect pet. He felt like he’d failed with Karkat and with_ **_her_ ** _, well… he knew that he’d failed._ _  
_ _  
  
_ Sollux could still hear her words, as her stained olive fingers reached out for him, urging him on. To follow.  
  
  
_“Solkitty, come with me. It’ll be purrfectly safe once we’re away. You’ll see.”_ _  
_ _  
  
_ _Her hope had shown in her face. Her triangular horns caught the yellow of the street lights as she crouched on that window._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _“I can’t go with you! You thhouldn’t go either! YOU’RE INTHANE NEPETA!” He’d reached for her and tried to hold on to the smaller girl._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _Her sad eyes had just stared into him. “Solkitty, if you stay here, you’ll die furreal. It won’t be a game and it won’t be any fun. I’ll die too. I’d rather take my chances to protect myself and sharpen my claws in the outside world! Please, come with me…”_ _  
_ _  
  
_ _His hand stayed on her cooler arm, staring at her immature gray filled eyes. “Nepeta. I can’t. Pleathe… PLEATHE! Don’t to thith!”_ _  
_

_  
_ _Nepeta reached out and gently papped his face, trilling deep in her throat in a way that was more purr than cricket. “I hope you change your mind Solkitty”._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _Then she’d wrenched away her arm and hopped out of the window. She grabbed the drainage pipe and soon she was gone, a fading black shape vanishing into the streets._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _Sollux had watched the street long after she vanished into the dark. He’d watched until Titus had come back…_ _  
_ _  
  
_ _7 months later Cronus had been brought home. It had taken that long for the warehouse to be safe to strike again._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _Cronus had been so small and so new and his EVERYTHING had been so fucking… perfect. Everything about him clean and new and fresh, but there had already been fear in his eyes._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _The kid had waved to him and Sollux had wanted to die._ _  
_  
  
The memories were seared deep and irremovable into his psyche. 

  
Part of him even felt indebted to the younger troll. When he’d been the only troll, he’d had to deal with all three of them.  
  
  
Titus was meaner to Cronus then he was to Karkat or Nepeta though and that hit Sollux hard. At least with Nepeta he’d hoped the adult would calm down eventually.  
  
  
He remembered the moment when he’d finally realised that that was NEVER going to happen. Titus **hated** Cronus.  
  
  
_Sollux was sitting between Jeff and Mike, just like almost any other time. They were playing Halo and doing pretty damn well when the screaming from the back room had broken through their headphones._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _It sounded like Cronus was dying but… Titus was screaming too. There was so much rage and it shot right to the core of all of them. Sollux felt it as the other two froze up too._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _They all sat there, tense as fighting in an international Overwatch Competitions final rounds._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _Then there was a bang and Titus was thundering down the thin hallway. He needed to talk and… well, unfortunately all three of them were sitting there, on the couch… trapped._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _“NEVER FUCKING GET A COLD BLOOD. I CAN’T FUCKING BELIEVE PEOPLE BUY THOSE USELESS LITTLE SHITS!” He was pointing at, well, probably Mike. Hopefully Mike, because Sollux was the next nearest._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _“He IS FUCKING PATHETIC. FUCKING PATHETIC. THEY SHOULD EXTERMINATE THAT FUCKING BREEDS!” Sollux distinctly remembered Titus being happy when he’d brought Cronus home. Happy that he’d had a pet that could take so much damage._ _  
_

_  
_ _Sollux was realising that that wasn’t what Titus wanted though. He’d hated Karkat’s mouth and will, Nepeta’s bravery and refusal to back down and now Cronus’s ability to take everything thrown at him._ _  
_ _  
  
_ _The teenager doubted any troll would be what Titus wanted. There wouldn’t be any pleasing him but… fuck did the human hate the cold. Titus… might actually kill Cronus._  
  
  
But, it was because of Cronus that he was as safe as he was.  
  
  
Now, he usually only had to deal with the better two. The two who loved him.  
  
  


**-Enter: Sollux, Friday, 4:48 pm-** **  
**

Karkat STILL HADN’T WRITTEN HIM BACK AND SOLLUX COULDN’T STOP PESTERING HIM! _Bet he’s ignoring us because were so fucking annoying- He wouldn’t do that.- Hahah. Ignore us? Yeah right. We suck._ Sollux had scrubbed the walls, the floors, the kitchen, cleaned the fridge, the cupboards, the bedrooms. He’d reorganised all the laundry for Mike to do, and played game after game. Everything still LOOKED filthy. But he knew it was clean. Logically he KNEW. But… the urge was still there.  
  
  
Titus was still gone and Cronus was healing and eating and that was good. Though, the one time he’d been caught peeking into that room Mike had straight up punched him in the pan. It had rattled him pretty bad actually. _Your own fucking fault. We were warned.-They were busy! Besides, what if Cronus wasn’t OK?-It’d be BEST IF THE KID DIED.-NO. SHUT UP!_  
_  
  
_He hated his own brain. But, maybe he’d get another chance. Maybe…  
  
  
He heard the keys in the lock to the front door. Fuck. Titus hadn’t even been gone for two days! Had it even been 24 hours?! _FUCK THIS SUCKS-_ _DID SOMETHING GO WRONG? WHAT IF HE WAS PISSED?!- HUSH WE NEED TO STAY OUT OF THE WAY!I_

  
Sollux didn’t like this…  
  
  
The man entered, looking pissed and he dropped his bag onto the floor, thundering through the living room and going straight to the bathroom. Jeff and Mike were sitting still, and it looked like they’d been holding their breath.  
  
  
The troll went to the kitchen, deciding he was gonna make burgers for dinner. Titus liked burgers. Maybe it’d improve the man's mood? He fucking doubted it, but it was better then doing nothing.  
  
  
It was around ten minutes later when Sollux heard a ‘crack’ come from the living room. A sound he was fairly sure he recognised and his blood ran cold.  
  
  
A breaking screen.  
  
  
Jeff’s voice rang out. “Fuck… fuck… fuck! He’s gonna kill me! I… I didn’t fucking see it. Must have fallen out of his bag… FUCK.” The other teens' voice was quickly turning hysterical. “No. Mike… how do I hide this?! How…”  
  
  
Mike was silent and Sollux peeked in to confirm.  
  
  
Jeff was standing there, holding Titus’s phone in his hands and… the screen was BADLY cracked. He swallowed hard and went back into the kitchen. This was going to suck. _What if he blames you? Titus will fucking kill you. Or worse. Break our iPad. Then KK will think we ditched him._ It was hard to argue with that voice.  
  
  
“Mike. Fucking _please!_ ** _Please, help me_**!”  
  
  
Mike was still silent. Sollux knew that he just didn’t know what to do. Sollux didn’t know what to do either. This… was too hard.  
  
  
Predictably that was when Titus walked back into the living room. The man seemed to have a mutant ability when it came to people fucking up.  
  
  
“...Is that my phone?! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!”  
  
  
Sollux couldn’t look. Instead he curled up on the ground, near the sink and tried not to freak out.  
  
  
Jeff had blamed him for things he didn’t do before. He’d… he’d done it a lot when they were younger and… Sollux didn’t think he could take another beating so soon. Terror was welling up inside of him.  
  
  
But, it seemed for once in his life, the powers that be must have pitied him.  
  
  
“I… I didn’t see it. TITUS. I’LL PAY FOR IT. I SWE-” There was a scream of pain and the sound of a body hitting the floor. It was quickly followed by the sounds of a beating.  
  
  
“YOU FUCKING PRICK. YOU BLIND FUCKING PRICK. HOW ARE YOU GONNA PAY ME? HUNH? YOU’RE FUCKING USELESS.”  
  
  
There were more sounds and more sobbing. Jeff was begging as best as he could. Muttering that he would. He’d pay him somehow. He’d “get a job!”  
  
  
The sounds of the beating stopped and then Titus was laughing, hysterically. “No you fucking WON’T. You’re FUCKING GROUNDED FOREVER MOTHER FUCKER!” There was a gasp of pain, but Sollux suspected that Titus had lifted the other up, probably by his hair. “Take. One. STEP. Outside and I’ll make you wish you were NEVER BORN!”  
  
  
Again there was the sound of a body dropping, but not as far.  
  
  
Titus then thundered back down the hallway and slammed his door.  
  
  
Sollux listened to Jeff sob in pain, but he still didn’t move and he could hear that Mike still hadn’t either.  
  
  
The sobs filled the empty space.  
  
  


**-Enter: Tony, Friday, 9:30 pm-**

Karkat was rambling again, looking at the TV but not really watching it. Kankri had been cleared by Bruce pretty fast and now most of them were in the living room together.  
  
  
Eridan had been grounded. Tony really hadn't been pleased when he’d learned that the purple boy had punched Karkat in the face. Yeah, the teasing hadn’t looked good on camera. But it hadn’t been deserving of a bruised nose.  
  
  
Steve had dealt with it before Tony ever got home, but he felt responsible.  
  
  
Steve was sitting with Tavros, not nearly as scared of those horns as anybody else.

  
Bruce was sitting with Kankri, who had dozed off after telling them everything he’d seen on the TV and what he’d thought about what he’d seen and, at one point, about what he thought his own thoughts meant.  
  
  
Tony was holding Karkat gently. He wasn’t quite sure how it’d happened. The troll had started out facing the other way and curled up. But as time had passed, it was like he’d drifted over until his head was in the genius’s lap. For the first time in a really, really long time, Tony felt like he was truly on top of the world. Karkat was talking to him, not shying away and well, seemed to have warmed up to him.  
  
  
It was also just about the TV show, but that was fine. It wasn’t like Kankri and… Tony was really trying to be understanding about that little brats urge to talk. He just kept telling himself that the 8 year old would get it all out of his system eventually.  
  
  
It was then he remembered that he’d wanted to ask Karkat about his friend. “Hey Karkat. You wanna tell me about Sollux buddy?” He asked, really hoping that it didn’t kill the mood. Fuck, he wanted booze but… Well Tavros might get it, Steve and Bruce were there and… he’d lose that argument.  
  
  
Karkat had stilled and turned his face to look at Tony. He could see flecks of red in the boy's eyes and he wondered how it was that Kankri had gray eyes and Eridan had purple, but Karkat had a mix. Idly he wondered why Kankri and Karkat looked so similar, but he brushed that off. It was probably just him not being able to see their differences well because he wasn’t the same species.  
  
  
“...Sollux was my… I guess, brother? I told him… I’d be back. I… I am gonna go back later. Later I’ll tell him… why…” The teenager yawned and leaned his head back into his lap. Karkat was warm and it was nice.  
  
  
“Sol. I want Sol. I want him so fucking… bad. It feels… weird. Please. Fuck. I want Sol”. It was then that Tony noticed the transparent red tears welling up in those flecked eyes.  
  
  
“Hey. Hey buddy. You’re OK”. He said, not knowing what to do. Karkat was starting to shake and his hands moved up so he was holding his head just a little. _Fuck, are the meds not working_? Was Tony’s first thought. _Maybe the dose should be changed?_ Another part of him was whispering again, but he brushed it off. It wasn’t like the boy was freaking out… this would be fine. _Maybe he could find Sollux and… reunite them? No. How would he even find the boy? It was almost certain that the other troll had been sold like Karkat by now._  
  
  
“Karkat. Do you know your old address?” He tried. If anyone could find the other boy, it’d be TONY FUCKING STARK!  
  
  
His words caused the crying to get worse and Karkat shook his head, those thin hands digging into Tony’s pants.  
  
  
Across from them grey eyes opened and looked at him. Tony saw the movement and also saw Bruce blink the sleep from his own eyes. He hadn’t noticed that the other scientist had fallen asleep. The three teenagers had really taken it out of the Gamma researcher and now? Well, it seemed they were just gonna add in more Trolls until Tony figured out what to do with them.  
  
  
“You need to pap him. You know how to pap right? I can show you if you don’t know how. It’ll make him happy again. Or at least go to sleep. Papping is a good thing. It calms everyone down. Well, at least I think it comes everyone down… or at least almost everyone. There were a few people that didn’t like it when I touched their faces but they liked it when I sp-”  
  
  
The kid wasn’t going to stop. _Oh fuck. Oh god fuck no. Stop!_ Tony realised he needed a distraction and he spat out the first thing to come to his mind. “I’d LOVE for you to show me how to ‘pap’ him Kankri”. _Papping better be benign._  
  
  
The little boy smiled and got up, before going over and raising his hand. “Like this. I’d explain it as I did it. But I have found that too much talking can be counterproductive to the experience. At least a good amount of the time. But…” The boy caught himself that time and reached out, before he literally touched the other troll's face and gently, but firmly, patted it. He smiled and made a small sound, deep in his throat. It was some sort of cross between a cricket, a cicada and… maybe a bird? The sound was weird, but very soothing Tony had to admit.  
  
  
Tony looked around the room briefly to see if Bruce and Steve were watching. They were, but then he noticed that Tavros was flushed bright Bronze and staring, Tony noticed, but he couldn’t imagine why. The other even looked sort of uncomfortable.  
  
  
His gaze went back to Kankri.  
  
  
The little boy was trilling and kneeling and… Karkat was calming down and leaning into the other troll's touch. Those flecked eyes closed gently and then Karkat trilled **_back_**. It was like music as the two sang to each other.  
  
  
Steven jerked a little and looked at Tavros, who was even more flushed, looking intently at the two. Tony couldn’t hear it, but he’d have bet money that Tavros had let out the same sound.  
  
  
Then the bull horned boy jerked up and, practically glowing, bit his lip and **nervously** smiled weakly. “I...Umm… Uhh… I… uhh… GOOD NIGHT!” He ran as fast as he physically could from the room.  
  
  
Bruce shook his head, but it seemed he understood and found it alright, though puzzled. Tony wanted to ask him to share with the rest of the class. Steve at least looked just as confused as Tony felt. But…  
  
  
Karkat’s breathing was settling and it seemed he was starting to fall asleep. As was Kankri for that matter.  
  
  
That was a blessing.  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews make me happy and I am taking some requests. 
> 
> A request is why you got the cute scene, though it did put me over my normal max word count. There wasn't enough for it to be it's own chapter though, so I hope it's alright!
> 
> I hope you liked the art!


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